THE  REMINISCENC 
OF  AN  ASTRONOME 


a 


0 

N£) 

CO 

o 
o 

Q 
>- 


LIBRARY 

OF    THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

Class 


THE  REMINISCENCES 

OF 

AN  ASTRONOMER 


BY 


SIMON   NEWCOMB 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YOEK 
HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND  COMPANY 

EtocrsitJc 

1903 


COPYRIGHT,   1903,  BY  SIMON   NEWCOMB 
ALL  RIGHTS   RESERVED 

Published  October,  1903 


PREFACE 

THE  earlier  chapters  of  this  collection  are  so  much 
in  the  nature  of  an  autobiography  that  the  author 
has  long  shrunk  from  the  idea  of  allowing  them 
to  see  the  light  during  his  lifetime.  His  repug- 
nance has  been  overcome  by  very  warm  expres- 
sions on  the  subject  uttered  by  valued  friends 
to  whom  they  were  shown,  and  by  a  desire  that 
some  at  least  who  knew  him  in  youth  should  be 
able  to  read  what  he  has  written. 

The  author  trusts  that  neither  critic  nor  reader 
will  object  because  he  has,  in  some  cases,  strayed 
outside  the  limits  of  his  purely  personal  experi- 
ence, in  order  to  give  a  more  complete  view  of  a 
situation,  or  to  bring  out  matters  that  might  be 
of  historic  interest.  If  some  of  the  chapters  are 
scrappy,  it  is  because  he  has  tried  to  collect  those 
experiences  which  have  afforded  him  most  food  for 
thought,  have  been  most  influential  in  shaping  his 
views,  or  are  recalled  with  most  pleasure. 


CONTENTS 

I 

THE  WORLD  OF  COLD  AND  DARKNESS 

Ancestry.  —  Squire  Thomas  Prince.  —  Parentage.  —  Early  Educa- 
tion. —  Books  read 1 

II 

DR.  FOSHAY 

A  Long  Journey  on  Foot.  —  A  Wonderful  Doctor.  —  The  Botanic 
System  of  Medicine.  —  Phrenology.  —  A  Launch  into  the  World. 

—  A  Disillusion.  —  Life  in  Maryland.  —  Acquaintance  with  Pro- 
fessor Henry.  —  Removal  to  Cambridge 23 

m 

THE  WORLD  OF  SWEETNESS  AND  LIGHT 

The  American  Astronomical  Ephemeris.  —  The  Men  who  made  it. 

—  Harvard  in  the  Middle  of  the  Century.  —  A  Librarian  of  the 
Time.  — Professor  Peirce. — Dr.  Gould,  the  "Astronomical  Jour- 
nal," and  the  Dudley  Observatory.  —  W.  P.  G.  Bartlett.  —  John 
D.  Runkle  and  the  "  Mathematical  Monthly."  —  A  Mathemati- 
cal Politician.  —  A  Trip  to  Manitoba  and  a  Voyage  up  the  Sas- 
katchewan. —  A  Wonderful  Star 62 

IV 

LIFE  AND  WORK  AT  AN  OBSERVATORY 

A  Professor,  United  States  Navy.  —  The  Naval  Observatory  in 
1861.  —  Captain  Gilliss  and  his  Plans.  —  Admiral  Davis.  —  A 
New  Instrument  and  a  New  Departure.  —  Astronomical  Activ- 
ity. —  The  Question  of  Observatory  Administration.  —  Visit 
from  the  Emperor  of  Brazil.  —  Admiral  John  Rodgers.  — 
Efforts  to  improve  the  Work  of  the  Observatory 97 


viii  CONTENTS 

V 

GREAT  TELESCOPES  AND  THEIR  WORK 

Carious  Origin  of  the  Great  Washington  Telescope.  —  Congress  is 
induced  to  act.  —  A  Case  of  Astronomical  Fallibility.  —  The 
Discovery  of  the  Satellites  of  Mars.  —  The  Great  Telescope  of 
the  Pulkova  Observatory.  —  Alvan  Clark  and  his  Sons.  —  A 
Sad  Astronomical  Accident 128 

VI 

THE  TRANSITS  OF  VENUS 

Old  Transits  of  Venus.  —  An  Astronomical  Expedition  in  the  18th 
Century.  —  Father  Hell  and  his  Observations.  —  A  Suspected 
Forger  vindicated.  —  The  American  Commission  on  the  Tran- 
sit of  Venus.  —  The  Photographic  Method  to  be  applied. — 
Garfield  and  the  Appropriation  Committee.  —  Weather  Uncer- 
tainties. —  Voyage  to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  —  The  Transit 
of  1882.  —  Our  Failure  to  publish  our  Observations 151 

vn 

THE  LICK  OBSERVATORY 

James  Lick  and  his  Ideas.  —  Mr.  D.  O.  Mills.  —  Plans  for  the  Lick 
Observatory.  —  Edward  E.  Barnard.  —  Professor  Holden.  — 
Wonderful  Success  of  the  Observatory 182 

vin 

THE  AUTHOR'S  SCIENTIFIC  WORK 

The  Orbits  of  the  Asteroids.  —  The  Problems  of  Mathematical 
Astronomy.  —  The  Motion  of  the  Moon  and  its  Perplexing 
Inequalities.  —  A  Visit  to  the  Paris  Observatory  to  search  for 
Forgotten  Observations.  —  Wonderful  Success  in  finding  Them. 
—  The  Paris  Commune.  —  The  History  of  the  Moon's  Motion 
carried  back  a  Century.  —  The  Harvard  Observatory.  —  The 
"Nautical  Almanac"  Office  and  its  Work.  — Mr.  George  W. 
Hill  and  his  Work.  —  A  Wonderful  Algebraist.  —  The  Meridian 
Conference  of  1884,  and  the  Question  of  Universal  Time. — 
Tables  of  the  Planets  completed.  —  The  Astronomical  Con- 
stants. —  Work  unfinished  ..  195 


CONTENTS  iz 

IX 
SCIENTIFIC  WASHINGTON 

Professor  Henry  and  the  Smithsonian  Institution.  —  Alumni  Asso- 
ciations. —  The  Scientific  Club.  —  General  Sherman. — Mr.  Hugh 
McCulloch.  —  A  Forgotten  Scientist.  —  The  National  Academy 
of  Sciences.  —  The  Geological  Survey  of  the  Territories.  —  The 
Government  Forestry  System.  —  Professor  0.  C.  Marsh.  —  Sci- 
entific Humbugs.  —  Life  on  the  Plains 234 

X 

SCIENTIFIC  ENGLAND 

My  First  Trip  to  Europe.  —  Mr.  Thomas  Hughes.  —  Mr.  John 
Stuart  Mill.  —  Mr.  Gladstone  and  the  Royal  Society  Dinner. 

—  Other  Eminent  Englishmen.  —  Professors  Cay  ley  and  Adams. 

—  Professor  Airy  and  the  Greenwich  Observatory.  —  A  Visit 
to  Edinburgh 271 

XI 

MEN  AND  THINGS  IN  EUBOPE 

A  Voyage  to  Gibraltar  with  Professor  Tyndall.  —  The  Great  For- 
tress. —  "  Whispering  Boanerges."  —  A  Winter  Voyage  in  the 
Mediterranean.  —  Malta  and  Messina.  —  Advantage  of  not  un- 
derstanding a  Language.  —  German  Astronomers.  —  The  Pul- 
kova  Observatory.  —  A  Meeting  which  might  have  been  Em- 
barrassing.—  From  Germany  to  Paris  at  the  Close  of  the  War. 

—  Experiences  at  Paris  during  the  Commune.  —  The  Greatest 
Astronomer  of  France.  —  The  Paris  Observatory 302 

.       XII 

THE  OLD  AND  THE  NEW  WASHINGTON 

Washington  during  the  Civil  War.  —  Secretary  Stanton.  —  The 
Raid  of  General  Early.  —  A  Presidential  Levee  in  1864.  —  The 
Fall  of  Richmond.  —  The  Assassination  of  President  Lincoln. 

—  Negro  Traits  and  Education.  —  Senator  Sumner.  —  An  Am- 
bitious Academy.  —  President  Garfield  and  his  Assassination.  — 
Cooling  the  White  House  during  his  Illness.  —  The  Shepherd 
Regime  in  Washington 334 


x  CONTENTS 

XIII 
MISCELLANEA 

The  Great  Star-Catalogue  Case.  —  Professor  Peters  and  the  Alma- 
gest of  Ptolemy.  —  Scientific  Cranks.  —  The  Degrees  of  the 
French  Universities.  —  A  Virginia  Country  School.  —  Political 
Economy  and  Education.  —  Exact  Science  in  America  before 
the  Johns  Hopkins  University.  —  Professor  Ely  and  Economics. 
—  Spiritualism  and  Psychic  Research.  —  The  Georgia  Magnetic 
Girl 372 


THE   REMINISCENCES  OF   AN 
ASTRONOMER 


or 

.'TY 


THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN 
ASTRONOMER 


THE   WORLD    OF    COLD   AND   DARKNESS 

I  DATE  my  birth  into  the  world  of  sweetness  and 
light  on  one  frosty  morning  in  January,  1857,  when 
I  took  my  seat  between  two  well-known  mathema- 
ticians, before  a  blazing  fire  in  the  office  of  the 
"  Nautical  Almanac  "  at  Cambridge,  Mass.  I  had 
come  on  from  Washington,  armed  with  letters  from 
Professor  Henry  and  Mr.  Hilgard,  to  seek  a  trial  as 
an  astronomical  computer.  The  men  beside  me 
were  Professor  Joseph  Winlock,  the  superintend- 
ent, and  Mr.  John  D.  Runkle,  the  senior  assistant 
in  the  office.  I  talked  of  my  unsuccessful  attempt 
to  master  the  "  Mecanique  Celeste "  of  Laplace 
without  other  preparation  than  that  afforded  by 
the  most  meagre  text-books  of  elementary  mathe- 
matics of  that  period.  Runkle  spoke  of  the  trans- 
lator as  "  the  Captain."  So  familiar  a  designation 
of  the  great  Bowditch  —  LL.  D.  and  member  of 
the  Royal  Societies  of  London,  Edinburgh,  and 
Dublin  —  quite  shocked  me. 

I  was  then  in  my  twenty-second  year,  but  it  was 
the  first  time  I  had  ever  seen  any  one  who  was 


2       THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

familiar  with  the  "  Mecanique  Celeste."  I  looked 
with  awe  upon  the  assistants  who  filed  in  and  out 
as  upon  men  who  had  all  the  mysteries  of  gravita- 
tion and  the  celestial  motions  at  their  fingers'  ends. 
I  should  not  have  been  surprised  to  learn  that 
even  the  Hibernian  who  fed  the  fire  had  imbibed 
so  much  of  the  spirit  of  the  place  as  to  admire  the 
genius  of  Laplace  and  Lagrange.  My  own  rank 
was  scarcely  up  to  that  of  a  tyro ;  but  I  was  a  few 
weeks  later  employed  on  trial  as  computer  at  a 
salary  of  thirty  dollars  a  month. 

How  could  an  incident  so  simple  and  an  employ- 
ment so  humble  be  in  itself  an  epoch  in  one's  life 
—  an  entrance  into  a  new  world  ?  To  answer  this 
question  some  account  of  my  early  lif e  is  necessary. 
The  interest  now  taken  in  questions  of  heredity 
and  in  the  study  of  the  growing  mind  of  the  child 
may  excuse  a  word  about  my  ancestry  and  early 
training. 

Though  born  in  Nova  Scotia,  I  am  of  almost 
pure  New  England  descent.  The  first  Simon 
Newcomb,  from  whom  I  am  of  the  sixth  genera- 
tion, was  born  in  Massachusetts  or  Maine  about 
1666,  and  died  at  Lebanon,  Conn.,  in  1745.  His 
descendants  had  a  fancy  for  naming  their  eldest 
sons  after  him,  and  but  for  the  chance  of  my 
father  being  a  younger  son,  I  should  have  been 
the  sixth  Simon  in  unbroken  lineal  descent.1 

Among  my  paternal  ancestors  none,  so  far  as  I 

1  The  actual  sixth  was  my  late  excellent  and  esteemed  cousin, 
Judge  Simon  Bolivar  Newcomb,  of  New  Mexico. 


THE  WORLD  OF  COLD  AND   DARKNESS  3 

know,  with  the  exception  of  Elder  Brewster,  were 
what  we  should  now  call  educated  men.  Nor 
did  any  other  of  them  acquire  great  wealth,  hold 
a  high  official  position,  or  do  anything  to  make 
his  name  live  in  history.  On  my  mother's  side  are 
found  New  England  clergymen  and  an  English 
nonconformist  preacher,  named  Prince,  who  is  said 
to  have  studied  at  Oxford  towards  the  end  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  but  did  not  take  a  degree. 
I  do  not  know  of  any  college  graduate  in  the 
list. 

Until  I  was  four  years  old  I  lived  in  the  house  of 
my  paternal  grandfather,  about  two  miles  from  the 
pretty  little  village  of  Wallace,  at  the  mouth  of 
the  river  of  that  name.  He  was,  I  believe,  a  stone- 
cutter by  trade  and  owner  of  a  quarry  which  has 
since  become  important ;  but  tradition  credits  him 
with  unusual  learning  and  with  having  at  some 
time  taught  school. 

My  maternal  grandfather  was  "  Squire  "  Thomas 
Prince,  a  native  of  Maine,  who  had  moved  to 
Moncton,  N.  B.,  early  in  life,  and  lived  there  the 
rest  of  his  days.  He  was  an  upright  magistrate, 
a  Puritan  in  principle,  and  a  pillar  of  the  Baptist 
Church,  highly  respected  throughout  the  province. 
He  came  from  a  long-lived  family,  and  one  so  pro- 
lific that  it  is  said  most  of  the  Princes  of  New 
England  are  descended  from  it.  I  have  heard  a 
story  of  him  which  may  illustrate  the  freedom  of 
the  time  in  matters  of  legal  proceedings  before  a 
magistrate's  court.  At  that  time  a  party  in  a  suit 


4       THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

could  not  be  a  witness.  In  the  terse  language  of 
the  common  people,  "  no  man  could  swear  money 
into  his  own  pocket."  The  plaintiff  in  the  case 
advised  the  magistrate  in  advance  that  he  had  no 
legal  proof  of  the  debt,  but  that  defendant  freely 
acknowledged  it  in  private  conversation. 

"  Well/'  said  the  magistrate,  "  bring  him  in  here 
and  get  him  to  talk  about  it  while  I  am  absent." 

The  time  came. 

"If  you  had  n't  sued  me  I  would  have  paid  you," 
said  the  defendant. 

On  the  moment  the  magistrate  stepped  from 
behind  a  door  with  the  remark,  — 

"  I  think  you  will  pay  him  now,  whether  or  no." 

My  father  was  the  most  rational  and  the  most 
dispassionate  of  men.  The  conduct  of  his  life  was 
guided  by  a  philosophy  based  on  Combe's  "  Con- 
stitution of  Man,"  and  I  used  to  feel  that  the  law 
of  the  land  was  a  potent  instrument  in  shaping  his 
paternal  affections.  His  method  of  seeking  a  wife 
was  so  far  unique  that  it  may  not  be  devoid  of 
interest,  even  at  this  date.  From  careful  study 
he  had  learned  that  the  age  at  which  a  man 
should  marry  was  twenty-five.  A  healthy  and 
well-endowed  offspring  should  be  one  of  the  main 
objects  in  view  in  entering  the  marriage  state,  and 
this  required  a  mentally  gifted  wife.  She  must  be 
of  different  temperament  from  his  own  and  an  eco- 
nomical housekeeper.  So  when  he  found  the  age 
of  twenty-five  approaching,  he  began  to  look  about. 
There  was  no  one  in  Wallace  who  satisfied  the 


THE  WORLD   OF  COLD  AND  DARKNESS  5 

requirements.  He  therefore  set  out  afoot  to  dis- 
cover his  ideal.  In  those  days  and  regions  the 
professional  tramp  and  mendicant  were  unknown, 
and  every  farmhouse  dispensed  its  hospitality  with 
an  Arcadian  simplicity  little  known  in  our  times. 
Wherever  he  stopped  overnight  he  made  a  critical 
investigation  of  the  housekeeping,  perhaps  rising 
before  the  family  for  this  purpose.  He  searched 
in  vain  until  his  road  carried  him  out  of  the  pro- 
vince. One  young  woman  spoiled  any  possible 
chance  she  might  have  had  by  a  lack  of  economy 
in  the  making  of  bread.  She  was  asked  what  she 
did  with  an  unnecessarily  large  remnant  of  dough 
which  she  left  sticking  to  the  sides  of  the  pan. 
She  replied  that  she  fed  it  to  the  horses.  Her  case 
received  no  further  consideration. 

The  search  had  extended  nearly  a  hundred  miles 
when,  early  one  evening,  he  reached  what  was  then 
the  small  village  of  Moncton.  He  was  attracted 
by  the  strains  of  music  from  a  church,  went  into 
it,  and  found  a  religious  meeting  in  progress.  His 
eye  was  at  once  arrested  by  the  face  and  head  of 
a  young  woman  playing  on  a  melodeon,  who  was 
leading  the  singing.  He  sat  in  such  a  position 
that  he  could  carefully  scan  her  face  and  move- 
ments. As  he  continued  this  study  the  conviction 
grew  upon  him  that  here  was  the  object  of  his 
search.  That  such  should  have  occurred  before 
there  was  any  opportunity  to  inspect  the  dough- 
pan  may  lead  the  reader  to  conclusions  of  his  own. 
He  inquired  her  name  —  Emily  Prince.  He  culti- 


6       THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

vated  her  acquaintance,  paid  his  addresses,  and 
was  accepted.  He  was  fond  of  astronomy,  and 
during  the  months  of  his  engagement  one  of  his 
favorite  occupations  was  to  take  her  out  of  an 
evening  and  show  her  the  constellations.  It  is 
even  said  that,  among  the  daydreams  in  which  they 
indulged,  one  was  that  their  firstborn  might  be  an 
astronomer.  Probably  this  was  only  a  passing 
fancy,  as  I  heard  nothing  of  it  during  my  child- 
hood. The  marriage  was  in  all  respects  a  happy 
one,  so  far  as  congeniality  of  nature  and  mutual 
regard  could  go.  Although  the  wife  died  at  the 
early  age  of  thirty-seven,  the  husband  never  ceased 
to  cherish  her  memory,  and,  so  far  as  I  am  aware, 
never  again  thought  of  marrying. 

My  mother  was  the  most  profoundly  and  sin- 
cerely religious  woman  with  whom  I  was  ever  in- 
timately acquainted,  and  my  father  always  enter- 
tained and  expressed  the  highest  admiration  for 
her  mental  gifts,  to  which  he  attributed  whatever 
talents  his  children  might  have  possessed.  The 
unfitness  of  her  environment  to  her  constitution 
is  the  saddest  memory  of  my  childhood.  More  I 
do  not  trust  myself  to  say  to  the  public,  nor  will 
the  reader  expect  more  of  me. 

My  father  followed,  during  most  of  his  life,  the 
precarious  occupation  of  a  country  school  teacher. 
It  was  then,  as  it  still  is  in  many  thinly  settled 
parts  of  the  country,  an  almost  nomadic  profession, 
a  teacher  seldom  remaining  more  than  one  or  two 
years  in  the  same  place.  Thus  it  happened  that, 


THE  WORLD  OF  COLD  AND  DARKNESS  7 

during  the  first  fifteen  years  of  my  life,  movings 
were  frequent.  My  father  tried  his  fortune  in  a 
number  of  places,  both  in  Nova  Scotia  and  Prince 
Edward  Island.  Our  lot  was  made  harder  by  the 
fact  that  his  ideas  of  education  did  not  coincide 
with  those  prevalent  in  the  communities  where  he 
taught.  He  was  a  disciple  and  admirer  of  William 
Cobbett,  and  though  he  did  not  run  so  far  counter 
to  the  ideas  of  his  patrons  as  to  teach  Cobbett's 
grammar  at  school,  he  always  recommended  it  to 
me  as  the  one  by  which  alone  I  could  learn  to 
write  good  English.  The  learning  of  anything, 
especially  of  arithmetic  and  grammar,  by  the  glib 
repetition  of  rules  was  a  system  that  he  held  in 
contempt.  With  the  public,  ability  to  recite  the 
rules  of  such  subjects  as  those  went  farther  than 
any  actual  demonstration  of  the  power  to  cipher 
correctly  or  write  grammatically. 

So  far  as  the  economic  condition  of  society  and 
the  general  mode  of  living  and  thinking  were  con- 
cerned, I  might  claim  to  have  lived  in  the  time  of 
the  American  Revolution.  A  railway  was  some- 
thing read  or  heard  about  with  wonder ;  a  steamer 
had  never  ploughed  the  waters  of  Wallace  Bay. 
Nearly  everything  necessary  for  the  daily  life  of 
the  people  had  to  be  made  on  the  spot,  and  even  at 
home.  The  work  of  the  men  and  boys  was  "  from 
sun  to  sun,"  —  I  might  almost  say  from  daylight 
to  darkness,  —  as  they  tilled  the  ground,  mended 
the  fences,  or  cut  lumber,  wood,  and  stone  for  ex- 
port to  more  favored  climes.  The  spinning  wheel 


8       THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

and  the  loom  were  almost  a  necessary  part  of  the 
furniture  of  any  well-ordered  house ;  the  excep- 
tions were  among  people  rich  enough  to  buy  their 
own  clothes,  or  so  poor  and  miserable  that  they 
had  to  wear  the  cast-off  rags  of  their  more  fortu- 
nate neighbors.  The  women  and  girls  sheared  the 
sheep,  carded  the  wool,  spun  the  yarn,  wove  the 
homespun  cloth,  and  made  the  clothes.  In  the 
haying  season  they  amused  themselves  by  join- 
ing in  the  raking  of  hay,  in  which  they  had  to 
be  particularly  active  if  rain  was  threatened ;  but 
any  man  would  have  lost  caste  who  allowed  wife 
or  daughter  to  engage  in  heavy  work  outside  the 
house. 

The  contrast  between  the  social  conditions  and 
those  which  surround  even  the  poorest  classes  at 
the  present  day  have  had  a  profound  influence  upon 
my  views  of  economic  subjects.  The  conception 
which  the  masses  of  the  present  time  have  of  how 
their  ancestors  lived  in  the  early  years  of  the  cen- 
tury are  so  vague  and  shadowy  as  not  to  influence 
their  conduct  at  the  present  time. 

What  we  now  call  school  training,  the  pursuit 
of  fixed  studies  at  stated  hours  under  the  constant 
guidance  of  a  teacher,  I  could  scarcely  be  said  to 
have  enjoyed.  For  the  most  part,  when  I  attended 
my  father's  school  at  all,  I  came  and  went  with 
entire  freedom,  and  this  for  causes  which,  as  we 
shall  see,  he  had  reasons  for  deeming  good. 

It  would  seem  that  I  was  rather  precocious.  I 
was  taught  the  alphabet  by  my  aunts  before  I  was 


THE  WORLD  OF  COLD  AND  DARKNESS  9 

four  years  old,  and  I  was  reading  the  Bible  in  class 
and  beginning  geography  when  I  was  six. 

One  curious  feature  of  my  reading  I  do  not  re- 
member to  have  seen  noticed  in  the  case  of  chil- 
dren. The  printed  words,  for  the  most  part, 
brought  no  well-defined  images  to  my  mind  ;  none 
at  least  that  were  retained  in  their  connection.  I 
remember  one  instance  of  this.  We  were  at  Be- 
deque,  Prince  Edward  Island.  During  the  absence 
of  my  father,  the  school  was  kept  for  a  time  by  Mr. 
Bacon.  The  class  in  reading  had  that  chapter  in 
the  New  Testament  in  which  the  treason  of  Judas 
is  described.  It  was  then  examined  on  the  subject. 
To  the  question  what  Judas  did,  no  one  could  re- 
turn an  answer  until  it  came  my  turn.  I  had  a 
vague  impression  of  some  one  hanging  himself,  and 
so  I  said  quite  at  random  that  he  hanged  himself. 
It  was  with  a  qualm  of  conscience  that  I  went  to 
the  head  of  the  class. 

Arithmetic  was  commenced  at  the  age  of  five, 
my  father  drawing  me  to  school  day  by  day  on  a 
little  sled  during  the  winter.  Just  what  progress 
I  made  at  that  time  I  do  not  recall.  Long  years 
afterward,  my  father,  at  my  request,  wrote  me  a 
letter  describing  my  early  education,  extracts  from 
which  I  shall  ask  permission  to  reproduce,  instead 
of  attempting  to  treat  the  matter  myself.  The 
letter,  covering  twelve  closely  written  foolscap 
pages,  was  probably  dashed  off  at  a  sitting  with- 
out supposing  any  eye  but  my  own  would  ever 
see  it :  — 


10     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

June  8th,  '58. 

I  will  now  proceed  to  write,  according  to  your  request, 
about  your  early  life. 

While  in  your  fifth  year,  your  mother  spoke  several 
times  of  the  propriety  of  teaching  you  the  first  rudi- 
ments of  book-learning ;  but  I  insisted  that  you  should 
not  be  taught  the  first  letter  until  you  became  five.1  I 
think,  though,  that  at  about  four,  or  four  and  a  half  I 
taught  you  to  count,  as  far,  perhaps,  as  100. 

When  a  little  over  four  and  a  half,  one  evening,  as 
I  came  home  from  school,  you  ran  to  me,  and  asked, 
"Father,  is  not  4  and  4  and  4  and  4,  16?  "  "Yes,  how 
did  you  find  it  out?"  You  showed  me  the  counterpane 
which  was  napped.  The  spot  of  four  rows  each  way 
was  the  one  you  had  counted  up.  After  this,  for  a  week 
or  two,  you  spent  a  considerable  number  of  hours  every 
day,  making  calculations  in  addition  and  multiplication. 
The  rows  of  naps  being  crossed  and  complexed  in  vari- 
ous ways,  your  greatest  delight  was  to  clear  them  out, 
find  how  many  small  ones  were  equal  to  one  large  one, 
and  such  like.  After  a  space  of  two  or  three  weeks  we 
became  afraid  you  would  calculate  yourself  "  out  of  your 
head,"  and  laid  away  the  counterpane. 

Winter  came,  and  passed  along,  and  your  birthday 
came;  on  that  day,  having  a  light  hand-sled  prepared, 
I  fixed  you  on  it,  and  away  we  went  a  mile  and  a  half 
to  school. 

According  to  my  belief  in  educational  matters  "that 
the  slate  should  be  put  into  the  child's  hands  as  soon  as 
the  book  is,"  you  of  course  had  your  slate,  and  com- 
menced making  figures  and  letters  the  first  day. 

In  all  cases,  after  you  had  read  and  spelled  a  lesson, 
and  made  some  figures,  and  worked  a  sum,  suppose  one 

1  He  had  evidently  forgotten  the  home  instruction  from  my 
aunts,  received  more  than  a  year  previous  to  the  date  he  mentions. 


THE  WORLD   OF   COLD  AND  DARKNESS         11 

hour's  study,  I  sent  you  out,  telling  you  to  run  about 
and  play  a  "good  spell."  To  the  best  of  my  judgment 
you  studied,  during  the  five  months  that  this  school 
lasted,  nearly  four  hours  a  day,  two  being  at  figures. 


During  the  year  that  I  taught  at  Bedeque,  you  stud- 
ied about  five  hours  a  day  in  school ;  and  I  used  to  ex- 
ercise you  about  an  hour  a  day  besides,  either  morning 
or  evening.  This  would  make  six  hours  per  day,  nearly 
or  quite  two  and  a  half  hours  of  that  time  at  numbers 
either  at  your  slate  or  mentally.  When  my  school  ended 
here,  you  were  six  and  a  half  years  of  age,  and  pretty 
well  through  the  arithmetic.  You  had  studied,  I  think, 
all  the  rules  preceding  including  the  cube  root.  .  .  . 

I  had  frequently  heard,  during  my  boyhood,  of 
a  supposed  mental  breakdown  about  this  period, 
and  had  asked  my  father  for  a  description  of  it  in 
the  letter  from  which  I  am  quoting.  On  this  sub- 
ject the  letter  continues  :  — 

You  had  lost  all  relish  for  reading,  study,  play,  or 
talk.  Sat  most  of  the  day  flat  on  the  floor  or  hearth. 
When  sent  of  an  errand,  you  would  half  the  time  forget 
what  you  went  for.  I  have  seen  you  come  back  from 
Gale  Schurman's  crying,1  and  after  asking  you  several 
times  you  would  make  out  to  answer,  you  had  not  been 
all  the  way  over  because  you  forgot  what  you  went  for. 
You  would  frequently  jump  up  from  the  corner,  and  ask 
some  peculiar  question.  I  remember  three  you  asked 
me. 

1  The  grandfather  of  President  Schurman  of  Cornell  University. 
I  retain  a  dreamy  impression  of  two  half-grown  or  nearly  grown 
boys,  perhaps  between  fourteen  and  eighteen  years  of  age,  one  of 
whom  became,  I  believe,  the  father  of  the  president. 


12     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

1st.  Father,  does  form  mean  shape?  Yes.  Has 
everything  some  shape  ?  Yes.  Can  it  be  possible  for 
anything  to  be  made  that  would  not  have  any  shape? 
I  answered  no;  and  then  showed  you  several  things,  ex- 
plaining that  they  all  had  some  shape  or  form.  You 
now  brightened  up  like  a  lawyer  who  had  led  on  a  witness 
with  easy  questions  to  a  certain  point,  and  who  had  cau- 
tiously reserved  a  thunderbolt  question,  to  floor  the  wit- 
ness at  a  proper  time ;  proceeded  with,  "  Well,  then,  how 
could  the  world  be  without  form  when  God  made  it?  " 

3d.  Does  Gale  Schurman's  big  ram  know  that  he  has 
such  big  crooked  horns  on  him?  Does  he  know  it  him- 
self, I  mean?  Does  he  know  himself  that  he  has  such 
horns  on  him? 

You  were  taken  down  suddenly  I  think  about  two  or 
three  days  from  the  first  symptoms  until  you  were  fairly 
in  the  corner.  Your  rise  was  also  rapid,  I  think  about  a 
week  (or  perhaps  two  weeks)  from  your  first  at  recovery, 
until  you  seemed  to  show  nothing  unusual.  From  the 
time  you  were  taken  down  until  you  commenced  recovery 
was  about  a  month. 

We  returned  to  Prince  Edward  Island,  and  after  a 
few  weeks  I  began  to  examine  you  in  figures,  and  found 
you  had  forgotten  nearly  air  you  had  ever  learned. 

While  at  New  London  I  got  an  old  work  on  Astron- 
omy; you  were  wonderfully  taken  with  it,  and  read  it 
with  avidity.  While  here  you  read  considerable  in 
"Goldsmith's  History  of  England."  We  lived  two 
years  in  New  London;  I  think  you  attended  school 
nearly  one  year  there.  I  usually  asked  you  questions 
on  the  road  going  to  school,  in  the  morning,  upon  the 
history  you  had  read,  or  something  you  had  studied  the 
day  previous.  While  there,  you  made  a  dozen  or  two  of 


THE  WORLD  OF  COLD  AND  DARKNESS         13 

the  folks  raise  a  terrible  laugh.  I  one  evening  lectured 
on  astronomy  at  home ;  the  house  was  pretty  well  filled, 
I  suppose  about  twenty  were  present.  You  were  not 
quite  ten  years  old  and  small  at  that.  Almost  as  soon 
as  I  was  done  you  said:  "Father,  I  think  you  were 
wrong  in  one  thing."  Such  a  roar  of  laughter  almost 
shook  the  house. 

You  were  an  uncommon  child  for  truth.  I  never 
knew  you  to  deviate  from  it  in  one  single  instance, 
either  in  infancy  or  youth. 

From  your  infancy  you  showed  great  physical  courage 
in  going  along  the  woods  or  in  places  in  the  dark  among 
cattle,  and  I  am  surprised  at  what  you  say  about  your 
fears  of  a  stove-pipe  and  trees. 

Perhaps  I  should  have  said  "mental"  instead  of  phy- 
sical courage,  for  in  one  respect  you  were  uncommonly 
deficient  in  that  sort  of  courage  necessary  to  perform 
bodily  labor.  Until  nine  or  ten  years  of  age  you  made 
a  most  pitiful  attempt  at  any  sort  of  bodily  or  rather 
"handy"  work. 

An  extraordinary  peculiarity  in  you  was  never  to  leap 
past  a  word  you  could  not  make  out.  I  certainly  never 
gave  you  any  particular  instructions  about  this,  or  the 
fact  itself  would  not  at  the  time  have  appeared  so  strange 
to  me.  I  will  name  one  case.  After  a  return  to  Wal- 
lace (you  were  eleven)  I,  one  day,  on  going  from  home 
for  an  hour  or  so,  gave  you  a  borrowed  newspaper,  tell- 
ing you  there  was  a  fine  piece;  to  read  it,  and  tell  me 
its  contents  when  I  returned.  On  my  return  you  were 
near  the  house  chopping  wood.  "Well,  Simon,  did  you 
read  the  piece?  "  "No,  sir."  "Why  not?  "  "I  came 
to  a  word  I  did  not  know."  This  word  was  just  about 
four  lines  from  the  commencement. 

At  thirteen  you  read  Phrenology.     I  now  often  im- 


14     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

pressed  upon  you  the  necessity  of  bodily  labor ;  that  you 
might  attain  a  strong  and  healthy  physical  system,  so 
as  to  be  able  to  stand  long  hours  of  study  when  you 
came  to  manhood,  for  it  was  evident  to  me  that  you 
would  not  labor  with  the  hands  for  a  business.  On  this 
account,  as  much  as  on  account  of  poverty,  I  hired  you 
out  for  a  large  portion  of  the  three  years  that  we  lived 
at  Clements. 

At  fifteen  you  studied  Euclid,  and  were  enraptured 
with  it.  It  is  a  little  singular  that  all  this  time  you 
never  showed  any  self-esteem;  or  spoke  of  getting  into 
employment  at  some  future  day,  among  the  learned. 
The  pleasure  of  intellectual  exercise  in  demonstrating 
or  analyzing  a  geometrical  problem,  or  solving  an  alge- 
braic equation,  seemed  to  be  your  only  object.  No 
Junior,  Seignour  or  Sophomore  class,  with  annual  hon- 
ors, was  ever,  I  suppose,  presented  to  your  mind. 

Your  almost  intuitive  knowledge  of  geography,  navi- 
gation, and  nautical  matters  in  general  caused  me  to 
think  most  ardently  of  writing  to  the  Admiral  at  Hali- 
fax, to  know  if  he  would  give  you  a  place  among  the 
midshipmen  of  the  navy;  but  my  hope  of  seeing  you 
a  leading  lawyer,  and  finally  a  judge  on  the  bench, 
together  with  the  possibility  that  your  mother  would 
not  consent,  and  the  possibility  that  you  would  not  wish 
to  go,  deterred  me:  although  I  think  I  commenced  a 
letter. 

Among  the  books  which  profoundly  influenced 
my  mode  of  life  and  thought  during  the  period 
embraced  in  the  foregoing  extracts  were  Fowler's 
"  Phrenology "  and  Combe's  "  Constitution  of 
Man."  It  may  appear  strange  to  the  reader  if  a 
system  so  completely  exploded  as  that  of  phreno- 


THE  WORLD  OF  COLD  AND  DARKNESS         15 

logy  should  have  any  value  as  a  mental  discipline. 
Its  real  value  consisted,  not  in  what  it  taught  about 
the  position  of  the  "  organs/'  but  in  presenting  a 
study  of  human  nature  which,  if  not  scientific  in 
form,  was  truly  so  in  spirit.  I  acquired  the  habit 
of  looking  on  the  characters  and  capabilities  of 
men  as  the  result  of  their  organism.  A  hot  and 
impulsive  temper  was  checked  by  the  reflection  that 
it  was  beneath  the  dignity  of  human  nature  to  al- 
low a  rush  of  blood  to  the  organs  of  "  combative- 
ness  "  and  "  destructiveness  "  to  upset  one's  mental 
equilibrium. 

That  I  have  gotten  along  in  life  almost  without 
making  (so  far  as  I  am  aware)  a  personal  enemy 
may  be  attributed  to  this  early  discipline,  which 
led  me  into  the  habit  of  dealing  with  antagonism 
and  personal  opposition  as  I  would  deal  with  any 
physical  opposition  —  evade  it,  avoid  it,  or  over- 
come it.  It  goes  without  saying,  however,  that  no 
discipline  of  this  sort  will  avail  to  keep  the  pas- 
sions of  a  youth  always  in  check,  and  my  own 
were  no  exception.  When  about  fifteen  I  once 
made  a  great  scandal  by  taking  out  my  knife  in 
prayer  meeting  and  assaulting  a  young  man  who, 
while  I  was  kneeling  down  during  the  prayer,  stood 
above  me  and  squeezed  my  neck.  He  escaped  with 
a  couple  of  severe  though  not  serious  cuts  in  his 
hand.  He  announced  his  intention  of  thrashing 
me  when  we  should  meet  again;  so  for  several 
days  thereafter  I  tried,  so  far  as  possible,  in  go- 
ing afield  to  keep  a  pitchfork  within  reach,  deter- 


16     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

mined  that  if  he  tried  the  job  and  I  failed  to  kill 
him,  it  would  be  because  I  was  unable  to  do  so. 
Fortunately  for  both  of  us  he  never  made  the 
attempt. 

I  read  Combe's  "  Constitution  of  Man  "  when 
between  ten  and  twelve  years  of  age.  Though 
based  on  the  ideas  of  phrenology  and  not,  I  be- 
lieve, of  high  repute  as  a  system  of  philosophy, 
it  was  as  good  a  moral  tonic  as  I  can  imagine  to 
be  placed  in  the  hands  of  a  youth,  however  falla- 
cious may  have  been  its  general  doctrines.  So  far 
as  I  can  recall,  it  taught  that  all  individual  and 
social  ills  were  due  to  men's  disregard  of  the  laws 
of  Nature,  which  were  classified  as  physical  and 
moral.  Obey  the  laws  of  health  and  we  and  our 
posterity  will  all  reach  the  age  of  one  hundred 
years.  Obey  the  moral  law  and  social  evils  will 
disappear.  Its  reading  was  accompanied  by  some 
qualms  of  conscience,  arising  from  the  non-accord- 
ance of  many  of  its  tenets  with  those  of  the  "  Cate- 
chism" and  the  "New  England  Primer."  The 
combination  of  the  two,  however,  led  to  the  opti- 
mistic feeling  that  all  wrongs  would  be  righted, 
every  act  of  injustice  punished,  and  truth  and 
righteousness  eventually  triumph  through  the  regu- 
lar processes  of  Nature  and  Society.  I  have  been 
led  to  abandon  this  doctrine  only  by  much  experi- 
ence, some  of  which  will  be  found  in  the  following 
pages. 

In  the  direction  of  mathematical  and  physical 
science  and  reading  generally,  I  may  add  some- 


THE  WORLD  OF  COLD  AND  DARKNESS         17 

thing  to  what  I  have  quoted  from  my  father.  My 
grandfather  Simon  had  a  small  collection  of  books 
in  the  family.  Among  those  purely  literary  were 
several  volumes  of  "  The  Spectator  "  and  "  Roder- 
ick Kandom."  Of  the  former  I  read  a  good  deal. 
The  latter  was  a  story  which  a  boy  who  had  scarcely 
read  any  other  would  naturally  follow  with  inter- 
est. Two  circumstances  connected  with  the  read- 
ing, one  negative  and  the  other  positive,  I  recall. 
Looking  into  the  book  after  attaining  years  of 
maturity,  I  found  it  to  contain  many  incidents  of 
a  character  that  would  not  be  admitted  into  a  mod- 
ern work.  Yet  I  read  it  through  without  ever 
noticing  or  retaining  any  impression  of  the  indeli- 
cate side  of  the  story.  The  other  impression  was 
a  feeling  of  horror  that  a  man  fighting  a  duel  and 
finding  himself,  as  he  supposed,  mortally  wounded 
by  his  opponent,  should  occupy  his  mind  with 
avenging  his  own  death  instead  of  making  his 
peace  with  Heaven. 

Three  mathematical  books  were  in  the  collec- 
tion, Hammond's  Algebra,  Simpson's  Euclid,  and 
Moore's  Navigator,  the  latter  the  predecessor  of 
Bowditch.  The  first  was  a  miserable  book,  and  I 
think  its  methods,  which  were  crude  in  the  ex- 
treme, though  not  incorrect,  were  rather  more 
harmful  than  beneficial.  The  queer  diagrams  in 
Euclid  had  in  my  early  years  so  little  attraction 
for  me  that  my  curiosity  never  led  me  to  examine 
its  text.  I  at  length  did  so  in  consequence  of  a 
passage  in  the  algebra  which  referred  to  the  47th 


18     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

proposition  of  the  First  Book.  It  occurred  to  me 
to  look  into  the  book  and  see  what  this  was.  It 
was  the  first  conception  of  mathematical  proof 
that  I  had  ever  met  with.  I  saw  that  the  demon- 
stration referred  to  a  previous  proposition,  went 
back  to  that,  and  so  on  to  the  beginning.  A  new 
world  of  thought  seemed  to  be  opened.  That  prin- 
ciples so  profound  should  be  reached  by  methods 
so  simple  was  astonishing.  I  was  so  enraptured 
that  I  explained  to  my  brother  Thomas  while  walk- 
ing out  of  doors  one  day  how  the  Pythagorean 
proposition,  as  it  is  now  called,  could  be  proved 
from  first  principles,  drawing  the  necessary  dia- 
grams with  a  pencil  on  a  piece  of  wood.  I  thought 
that  even  cattle  might  understand  geometry  could 
they  only  be  communicated  with  and  made  to  pay 
attention  to  it. 

Some  one  at  school  had  a  copy  of  Mrs.  Marcet's 
"  Conversations  on  Natural  Philosophy."  With  this 
book  I  was  equally  enraptured.  Meagre  and  even 
erroneous  though  it  was,  it  presented  in  a  pleasing 
manner  the  first  principles  of  physical  science.  I 
used  to  steal  into  the  schoolhouse  after  hours  to 
read  a  copy  of  the  book,  which  belonged  to  one 
of  the  scholars,  and  literally  devoured  it  in  a  few 
evenings. 

My  first  undertaking  in  the  way  of  scientific  ex- 
periment was  in  the  field  of  economics  and  psycho- 
logy. When  about  fourteen  I  spent  the  winter  in 
the  house  of  an  old  farmer  named  Jefferson.  He 
and  his  wife  were  a  very  kindly  couple  and  took 


THE  WORLD  OF  COLD   AND  DARKNESS         19 

much  interest  in  me.  He  was  fond  of  his  pipe, 
as  most  old  farmers  are.  I  questioned  whether 
anything  else  would  not  do  just  as  well  as  tobacco 
to  smoke,  and  whether  he  was  not  wasting  his 
money  by  buying  that  article  when  a  cheap  substi- 
tute could  be  found.  So  one  day  I  took  his  pipe, 
removed  the  remains  of  the  tobacco  ashes,  and 
stuffed  the  pipe  with  tea  leaves  that  had  been 
steeped,  and  which  in  color  and  general  appearance 
looked  much  like  tobacco.  I  took  care  to  be  around 
when  he  should  again  smoke.  He  lit  the  pipe  as 
usual  and  smoked  it  with,  seemingly,  as  much  sat- 
isfaction as  ever,  only  essaying  the  remark,  "  This 
tobacco  tastes  like  tea."  My  conscience  pricked 
me,  but  I  could  say  nothing. 

My  father  bought  a  copy  of  Lardner's  "  Popular 
Lectures  on  Science  and  Art."  In  this  I  first  read 
of  electricity.  I  recall  an  incident  growing  out  of 
it.  In  Lardner's  description  of  a  Leyden  jar,  water 
is  the  only  internal  conductor.  The  wonders  of 
the  newly  invented  telegraph  were  then  explained 
to  the  people  in  out  of  the  way  places  by  traveling 
lecturers.  One  of  these  came  to  Clements,  where 
we  then  lived,  with  a  lot  of  apparatus,  amongst 
which  was  what  I  recognized  as  a  Leyden  jar.  It 
was  coated  with  tin-foil  on  the  outside,  but  I  did 
not  see  the  inner  coating,  or  anything  which  could 
serve  as  the  necessary  conductor.  So  with  great 
diffidence  I  asked  the  lecturer  while  he  was  arran- 
ging his  things,  if  he  was  not  going  to  put  water 
into  the  jar. 


20     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

"  No,  my  lad/'  was  his  reply,  "  I  put  lightning 
into  it." 

I  wondered  how  the  "  lightning  "  was  going  to 
be  conveyed  to  the  interior  surface  of  the  glass 
without  any  conductor,  such  as  water,  but  was  too 
much  abashed  to  ask  the  question. 

Moore's  "  Navigator "  taught  not  only  a  very 
crude  sort  of  trigonometry,  but  a  good  deal  about 
the  warship  of  his  time.  To  a  boy  living  on  the 
seacoast,  who  naturally  thought  a  ship  of  war  one 
of  the  greatest  works  of  man,  the  book  was  of  much 
interest. 

Notwithstanding  the  intellectual  pleasure  which 
I  have  described,  my  boyhood  was  on  the  whole 
one  of  sadness.  Occasionally  my  love  of  books 
brought  a  word  of  commendation  from  some  visi- 
tor, perhaps  a  Methodist  minister,  who  patted  me 
on  the  head  with  a  word  of  praise.  Otherwise  it 
caused  only  exclamations  of  wonder  which  were 
distasteful. 

"  You  would  n't  believe  what  larnin'  that  boy 
has  got.  He  has  more  larnin'  than  all  the  people 
around  here  put  together,"  I  heard  one  farmer  say 
to  another,  looking  at  me,  in  my  own  view  of  the 
case,  as  if  I  were  some  monster  misshapen  in  the 
womb.  Instead  of  feeling  that  my  bookish  taste 
was  something  to  be  valued,  I  looked  upon  myself 
as  a  lusus  naturae,  whom  Nature  had  cruelly  formed 
to  suffer  from  an  abnormal  constitution,  and  la- 
mented that  somehow  I  never  could  be  like  other 
boys. 


THE  WORLD  OF  COLD  AND  DARKNESS         21 

The  maladroitness  described  by  my  father,  of 
which  I  was  fully  conscious,  added  to  the  feeling 
of  my  unfitness  for  the  world  around  me.  The 
skill  required  on  a  farm  was  above  my  reach, 
where  efficiency  in  driving  oxen  was  one  of  the 
most  valued  of  accomplishments.  I  keenly  felt 
my  inability  to  acquire  even  respectable  mediocrity 
in  this  branch  of  the  agricultural  profession.  It 
was  mortifying  to  watch  the  dexterous  motions  of 
the  whip  and  listen  to  the  torrent  of  imperatives 
with  which  a  young  farmer  would  set  a  team  of 
these  stolid  animals  in  motion  after  they  had 
failed  to  respond  to  my  gentle  requests,  though 
conveyed  in  the  best  of  ox  language. 

I  had  indeed  gradually  formed,  from  reading,  a 
vague  conception  of  a  different  kind  of  world,  — 
a  world  of  light,  —  where  dwelt  men  who  wrote 
books  and  people  who  knew  the  men  who  wrote 
books,  —  where  lived  boys  who  went  to  college  and 
devoted  themselves  to  learning,  instead  of  driving 
oxen.  I  longed  much  to  get  into  this  world,  but 
no  possibility  of  doing  so  presented  itself.  I  had 
no  idea  that  it  would  be  imbued  with  sympathy 
for  a  boy  outside  of  it  who  wanted  to  learn.  True, 
I  had  once  read  in  some  story,  perhaps  fictitious, 
how  a  nobleman  had  found  a  boy  reading  Newton's 
"  Principia,"  and  not  only  expressed  his  pleased 
surprise  at  the  performance,  but  actually  got  the 
boy  educated.  But  there  was  no  nobleman  in 
sight  of  the  backwoods  of  Nova  Scotia.  I  read  in 
the  autobiography  of  Franklin  how  he  had  made 


22     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

his  way  in  life.  But  he  was  surrounded  with  op- 
portunities from  which  I  was  cut  off.  It  does  seem 
a  little  singular  that,  well  known  as  my  tastes  were 
to  those  around  me,  we  never  met  a  soul  to  say, 
"  That  boy  ought  to  be  educated."  So  far  as  I 
know,  my  father's  idea  of  making  me  a  lawyer  met 
with  nothing  but  ridicule  from  the  neighbors.  Did 
not  a  lawyer  have  to  know  Latin  and  have  money 
to  pursue  his  studies  ?  In  my  own  daydreams  I 
was  a  farmer  driving  his  own  team ;  in  my  mother's 
a  preacher,  though  she  had  regretfully  to  admit 
that  I  might  never  be  good  enough  for  this  pro- 
fession. 


II 

DOCTOR    FOSHAY 

IN  the  summer  of  1851,  when  I  had  passed  the 
age  of  sixteen,  we  lived  in  a  little  school  district  a 
mile  or  two  from  the  town  of  Yarmouth,  N.  S. 
Late  in  the  summer  we  had  a  visit  from  a  maternal 
uncle  and  aunt.  As  I  had  not  seen  Moncton  since 
I  was  six  years  old,  and  as  I  wanted  very  much  to 
visit  my  grandfather  Prince  once  more,  it  was  ar- 
ranged that  I  should  accompany  them  on  their 
return  home.  An  additional  reason  for  this  was 
that  my  mother's  health  had  quite  failed;  there 
was  no  prospect  of  my  doing  anything  where  I  was, 
and  it  was  hoped  that  something  might  turn  up  at 
Moncton.  There  was  but  one  difficulty ;  the  vis- 
itors had  driven  to  St.  John  in  their  own  little  car- 
riage, which  would  hold  only  two  people  ;  so  they 
could  not  take  me  back.  I  must  therefore  find  my 
own  way  from  St.  John  to  Moncton. 

We  crossed  the  Bay  of  Fundy  in  a  little  sailing 
vessel.  Among  the  passengers  was  an  English 
ship  captain  who  had  just  been  wrecked  off  the 
coast  of  Newfoundland,  and  had  the  saved  rem- 
nant of  his  crew  with  him.  On  the  morning  of 
our  departure  the  weather  was  stormy,  so  that  our 


24     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

vessel  did  not  put  to  sea  —  a  precaution  for  which 
the  captain  passenger  expressed  great  contempt. 
He  did  not  understand  how  a  vessel  should  delay 
going  to  sea  on  account  of  a  little  storm. 

The  walk  of  one  hundred  miles  from  St.  John 
to  Moncton  was  for  me,  at  that  time,  a  much  less 
formidable  undertaking  than  it  would  appear  in 
our  times  and  latitude.  A  thirty-mile  tramp  was 
a  bagatelle,  and  houses  of  entertainment  —  farm- 
houses where  a  traveler  could  rest  or  eat  for  a  few 
pennies  —  were  scattered  along  the  road.  But 
there  was  one  great  difficulty  at  the  start.  My  in- 
structions had  been  to  follow  the  telegraph  wires. 
I  soon  found  that  the  line  of  telegraph  came  into 
the  town  from  one  direction,  passed  through  it,  and 
then  left,  not  in  the  opposite  direction,  but  perhaps 
at  right  angles  to  it.  In  which  direction  was  the 
line  to  be  followed?  It  was  difficult  to  make 
known  what  I  wanted.  "  Why,  my  boy,  you  can't 
walk  to  Moncton,"  was  one  answer.  In  a  shop  the 
clerks  thought  I  wanted  to  ride  on  the  telegraph, 
and,  with  much  chuckling,  directed  me  to  the  tele- 
graph office  where  the  man  in  charge  would  send 
me  on.  I  tried  in  one  direction  which  I  thought 
could  not  be  right,  then  I  started  off  in  the  oppo- 
site one;  but  it  soon  became  evident  that  that 
branch  led  up  the  river  to  Frederickton.  So  I 
had  to  retrace  my  steps  and  take  the  original  line, 
which  proved  to  be  the  right  one. 

The  very  first  night  I  found  that  my  grand- 
father's name  was  one  to  conjure  with.  I  passed  it 


DOCTOR  FOSHAY  25 

with  a  hearty  old  farmer  who,  on  learning  who  I 
was,  entertained  me  with  tales  of  Mr.  Prince.  The 
quality  which  most  impressed  the  host  was  his  enor- 
mous physical  strength.  He  was  rather  below  the 
usual  stature  and,  as  I  remember  him,  very  slightly 
built.  Yet  he  could  shoulder  a  barrel  of  flour  and 
lift  a  hogshead  of  molasses  on  its  end,  feats  of 
strength  which  only  the  most  powerful  men  in  the 
region  were  equal  to. 

On  reaching  my  destination,  I  was  not  many  days 
in  learning  that  my  grandfather  was  a  believer  in 
the  maxims  of  "  Poor  Richard's  Almanac,"  and  dis- 
approved of  the  aimless  way  in  which  I  had  been 
bred.  He  began  to  suggest  the  desirableness  of 
my  learning  to  do  something  to  make  a  living.  I 
thought  of  certain  mechanical  tastes  which  had 
moved  me  in  former  years  to  whittle  and  to  make 
a  reel  on  which  to  wind  yarn,  and  to  mend  things 
generally.  So  I  replied  that  I  thought  the  trade  of 
a  carpenter  was  the  one  I  could  most  easily  learn. 
He  approved  of  the  idea,  and  expressed  the  inten- 
tion of  finding  a  carpenter  who  would  want  my 
services ;  but  before  he  did  so,  I  was  started  in  a 
new  and  entirely  different  direction. 

On  her  last  visit  to  her  birthplace,  my  mother 
brought  back  glowing  reports  of  a  wonderful  phy- 
sician who  lived  near  Moncton  and  effected  cures 
of  the  sick  who  had  been  given  up  by  other  doctors. 
I  need  hardly  remark  that  physicians  of  wonderful 
proficiency  —  Diomeds  of  the  medical  profession, 
before  whose  shafts  all  forms  of  disease  had  to  fall 


26     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

—  were  then  very  generally  supposed  to  be  realities. 
The  point  which  specially  commended  Dr.  Foshay 
to  us  was  that  he  practiced  the  botanic  system  of 
medicine,  which  threw  mineral  and  all  other  poi- 
sons out  of  the  materia  medica  and  depended  upon 
the  healing  powers  of  plants  alone.  People  had 
seen  so  much  of  the  evil  effects  of  calomel,  this 
being  the  favorite  alterative  of  the  profession,  that 
they  were  quite  ready  to  accept  the  new  system. 
Among  the  remarkable  cures  which  had  given  Dr. 
Foshay  his  great  reputation  was  one  of  a  young 
man  with  dyspepsia.  He  was  reduced  to  a  shadow, 
and  the  regular  doctors  had  given  him  up  as  incur- 
able. The  new  doctor  took  him  to  his  home.  The 
patient  was  addicted  to  two  practices,  both  of  which 
had  been  condemned  by  his  former  medical  advis- 
ers. One  was  that  of  eating  fat  pork,  which  he 
would  do  at  any  hour  of  the  day  or  night.  The 
new  doctor  allowed  him  to  eat  all  he  wanted.  An- 
other was  getting  up  in  the  night  and  practicing  an 
ablution  of  the  stomach  by  a  method  too  heroic  to 
be  described  in  anything  but  a  medical  treatise.1  He 
was  now  allowed  to  practice  it  to  his  heart's  content. 
The  outcome  of  the  whole  proceeding  was  that  he 
was  well  in  a  few  months,  and,  when  I  saw  him, 
was  as  lusty  a  youth  as  one  could  desire  to  meet. 

1  I  may  remark,  for  the  benefit  of  any  medical  reader,  that  it 
involved  the  use  of  two  pails,  one  full  of  water,  the  other  empty. 
When  he  got  through  the  ablution,  one  pail  was  empty,  and  the 
other  full.  My  authority  for  the  actuality  of  this  remarkable  pro- 
ceeding was  some  inmate  of  the  house  at  the  time,  and  I  give  cre- 
dence to  the  story  because  it  was  not  one  likely  to  be  invented. 


DOCTOR  FOSHAY  27 

Before  Mr.  Prince  could  see  a  carpenter,  he  was 
taken  ill.  I  was  intensely  interested  to  learn  that 
his  physician  was  the  great  doctor  I  had  heard  of, 
who  lived  in  the  village  of  Salisbury,  fifteen  miles 
on  the  road  to  St.  John. 

One  of  my  aunts  had  an  impression  that  the 
doctor  wanted  a  pupil  or  assistant  of  some  kind, 
and  suggested  that  a  possible  opening  might  here 
be  offered  me.  She  promised  to  present  me  to  the 
doctor  on  his  next  visit,  after  she  had  broached  the 
subject  to  him. 

The  time  for  which  I  waited  impatiently  at  length 
arrived.  Never  before  had  I  met  so  charming  a 
man.  He  was  decidedly  what  we  should  now  call 
magnetic.  There  was  an  intellectual  flavor  in  his 
talk  which  was  quite  new  to  me.  What  fascinated 
me  most  of  all  was  his  speaking  of  the  difficulties 
he  encountered  in  supplying  himself  with  sufficient 
"  reading  matter."  He  said  it  as  if  mental  food 
was  as  much  a  necessity  as  his  daily  bread.  He 
was  evidently  a  denizen  of  that  world  of  light 
which  I  had  so  long  wished  to  see.  He  said  that 
my  aunt  was  quite  right  in  her  impression,  and  our 
interview  terminated  in  the  following  liberal  pro- 
position on  his  part :  — 

S.  N.  to  live  with  the  doctor,  rendering  him  all 
the  assistance  in  his  power  in  preparing  medicines, 
attending  to  business,  and  doing  generally  whatever 
might  be  required  of  him  in  the  way  of  help. 

The  doctor,  on  his  part,  to  supply  S.  N.'s  bodily 
needs  in  food  and  clothing,  and  teach  him  medical 


28     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

botany  and  the  botanic  system  of  medicine.  The 
contract  to  terminate  when  the  other  party  should 
attain  the  age  of  twenty-one. 

After  mentioning  the  teaching  clause,  he  cor- 
rected himself  a  moment,  and  added :  "  At  least 
all  I  know  about  it." 

All  he  knows  about  it !  What  more  could  heart 
desire  or  brain  hold  ? 

The  brilliancy  of  the  offer  was  dimmed  by  only 
a  single  consideration  ;  I  had  never  felt  the  slight- 
est taste  for  studying  medicine  or  caring  for  the 
sick.  That  my  attainments  in  the  line  could  ever 
equal  those  of  my  preceptor  seemed  a  result  too 
hopeless  to  expect.  But,  after  all,  something  must 
be  done,  and  this  was  better  than  being  a  car- 
penter. 

Before  entering  upon  the  new  arrangement,  a 
ratification  was  required  on  both  sides.  The  doc- 
tor had  to  make  the  necessary  household  arrange- 
ments, and  secure  the  consent  of  his  wife.  I  had 
to  ask  the  approval  of  my  father,  which  I  did  by 
letter.  Like  General  Grant  and  many  great  men, 
he  was  a  man  of  exceptional  sagacity  in  matters 
outside  the  range  of  his  daily  concerns.  He  threw 
much  cold  water  on  the  scheme,  but  consented  to 
my  accepting  the  arrangement  temporarily,  as  there 
was  nothing  better  to  be  done. 

I  awaited  the  doctor's  next  visit  with  glowing 
anticipation.  In  due  course  of  time  I  stepped  with 
him  into  his  gig  for  the  long  drive,  expecting 
nothing  less  on  the  journey  than  a  complete  out- 


DOCTOR  FOSHAY  29 

line  of  the  botanic  system  of  medicine  and  a  pro- 
gramme of  my  future  studies.  But  scarcely  had 
we  started  when  a  chilling  process  commenced. 
The  man  erstwhile  so  effusive  was  silent,  cold,  im- 
passive, —  a  marble  statue  of  his  former  self.  I 
scarcely  got  three  sentences  out  of  him  during  the 
journey,  and  these  were  of  the  most  commonplace 
kind.  Could  it  be  the  same  man  ? 

There  was  something  almost  frightful  in  being 
alongside  a  man  who  knew  so  much.  When  we 
reached  our  destination  the  horse  had  to  be  put 
away  in  the  stable.  I  jumped  up  to  the  haymow 
to  throw  down  the  provender.  It  was  a  very  pe- 
culiar feeling  to  do  so  under  the  eye  of  a  man 
who,  as  he  watched  me,  knew  every  muscle  that  I 
was  setting  in  operation. 

A  new  chill  came  on  when  we  entered  the  house 
and  I  was  presented  to  its  mistress. 

"  So  you  're  the  boy  that 's  come  to  work  for 
the  doctor,  are  you  ?  " 

"  I  have  come  to  study  with  him,  ma'am,"  was 
my  interior  reply,  but  I  was  too  diffident  to  say 
it  aloud.  Naturally  the  remark  made  me  very 
uncomfortable.  The  doctor  did  not  correct  her, 
and  evidently  must  have  told  her  something  differ- 
ent from  what  he  told  me.  Her  tone  was  even 
more  depressing  than  her  words  ;  it  breathed  a 
coldness,  not  to  say  harshness,  to  which  I  had  not 
been  accustomed  in  a  woman.  There  was  nothing 
in  her  appearance  to  lessen  the  unpleasant  impres- 
sion. Small  in  stature,  with  florid  complexion, 


30     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

wide  cheek  bones  that  gave  her  face  a  triangular 
form,  she  had  the  eye  and  look  of  a  well-trained 
vixen. 

As  if  fate  were  determined  to  see  how  rapid  my 
downfall  should  be  before  the  close  of  the  day,  it 
continued  to  pursue  me.  I  was  left  alone  for  a  few 
minutes.  A  child  some  four  years  old  entered  and 
made  a  very  critical  inspection  of  my  person.  The 
result  was  clearly  unfavorable,  for  she  soon  asked 
me  to  go  away.  Finding  me  indisposed  to  obey 
the  order,  she  proceeded  to  the  use  of  force  and 
tried  to  expel  me  with  a  few  strong  pushes.  When 
I  had  had  enough  of  this,  I  stepped  aside  as  she 
was  making  a  push.  She  fell  to  the  floor,  then 
picked  herself  up  and  ran  off  crying,  "  Mamma." 
The  latter  soon  appeared  with  added  ire  infused 
into  her  countenance. 

"  What  did  you  hit  the  child  for  ?  " 

"I  didn't  hit  her.  What  should  I  want  to 
strike  a  child  like  that  for  ?  " 

"But  she  says  you  hit  her  and  knocked  her 
down." 

"  I  did  n't,  though  —  she  was  trying  to  push  me 
and  fell  and  hurt  herself." 

A  long  piercing  look  of  doubt  and  incredulity 
followed. 

"  Strange,  very  strange.  I  never  knew  that 
child  to  tell  a  lie,  and  she  says  you  struck  her." 

It  was  a  new  experience  —  the  first  time  I  had 
ever  known  my  word  to  be  questioned. 

During   the   day   one   thought    dominated    all 


DOCTOR  FOSHAY  31 

others :  where  are  those  treasures  of  literature 
which,  rich  though  they  are,  fail  to  satisfy  their 
owner's  voracious  intellectual  appetite  ?  As  houses 
were  then  built,  the  living  and  sleeping  rooms 
were  all  on  one  main  floor.  Here  they  comprised 
a  kitchen,  dining  room,  medicine  room,  a  little 
parlor,  and  two  small  sleeping  rooms,  one  for  the 
doctor  and  one  for  myself.  Before  many  hours 
I  had  managed  to  see  the  interior  of  every  one 
except  the  doctor's  bedroom,  and  there  was  not 
a  sign  of  a  book  unless  such  common  ones  as  a 
dictionary  or  a  Bible.  What  could  it  all  mean  ? 

Next  day  the  darkness  was  illuminated,  at  least 
temporarily,  by  a  ray  of  light.  The  doctor  had 
been  absent  most  of  the  day  before  on  a  visit  to 
some  distant  patient.  Now  he  came  to  me  and 
told  me  he  wanted  to  show  me  how  to  make  bilious 
powders.  Several  trays  of  dried  herbs  had  been 
drying  under  the  kitchen  stove  until  their  leaves 
were  quite  brittle.  He  took  these  and  I  followed 
him  to  the  narrow  stairway,  which  we  slowly  as- 
cended, he  going  ahead.  As  I  mounted  I  looked 
for  a  solution  of  the  difficulty.  Here  upstairs  must 
be  where  the  doctor  kept  his  books.  At  each  step 
I  peered  eagerly  ahead  until  my  head  was  on  a 
level  with  the  floor.  Kafters  and  a  window  at 
the  other  end  had  successively  come  into  view  and 
now  the  whole  interior  was  visible.  Nothing  was 
there  but  a  loft,  at  the  further  end  of  which  was  a 
bed  for  the  housemaid.  The  floor  was  strewn  with 
dried  plants.  Nothing  else  was  visible.  The  dis- 


32     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

illusion  seemed  complete.     My  heart  sank  within 
me. 

On  one  side  of  the  stairway  at  a  level  with  the 
floor  was  screwed  a  large  coffee  mill.  The  doctor 
spread  a  sheet  of  paper  out  on  the  floor  on  the 
other  side,  and  laid  a  fine  sieve  upon  it.  Then  he 
showed  me  how  to  grind  the  dry  and  brittle  leaves 
in  the  coffee  mill,  put  them  into  the  sieve,  and  sift 
them  on  the  paper.  This  work  had  a  scientific 
and  professional  look  which  infused  a  glimmer  of 
light  into  the  Cimmerian  darkness.  The  bilious 
powders  were  made  of  the  leaves  of  four  plants 
familiarly  known  as  spearmint,  sunflower,  smart- 
weed,  and  yarrow.  In  his  practice  a  heaping  tea- 
spoonful  of  the  pulverized  leaves  was  stirred  in  a 
cup  of  warm  water  and  the  grosser  parts  were 
allowed  to  settle,  while  the  patient  took  the  finer 
parts  with  the  infusion.  This  was  one  of  Dr. 
Foshay's  staple  remedies.  Another  was  a  pill  of 
which  the  principal  active  ingredient  was  aloes. 
The  art  of  making  these  pills  seemed  yet  more 
scientific  than  the  other,  and  I  was  much  pleased 
to  find  how  soon  I  could  master  it.  Beside  these 
a  number  of  minor  remedies  were  kept  in  the 
medicine  room.  Among  them  were  tinctures  of 
lobelia,  myrrh,  and  capsicum.  There  was  also  a 
pill  box  containing  a  substance  which,  from  its 
narcotic  odor,  I  correctly  inferred  to  be  opium. 
This  drug  being  prohibited  by  the  Botanic  School 
I  could  not  but  feel  that  Dr.  Foshay's  orthodoxy 
was  painfully  open  to  question. 


DOCTOR  FOSHAY  33 

Determined  to  fathom  the  mystery  in  which  the 
doctor's  plans  for  my  improvement  were  involved, 
I  announced  my  readiness  to  commence  the  study 
of  the  botanic  system.  He  disappeared  in  the 
direction  of  his  bedroom,  and  soon  returned  with 
—  could  my  eyes  believe  it  ?  —  a  big  book.  It 
was  one  which,  at  the  time  of  its  publication,  some 
thirty  or  forty  years  before,  was  well  known  to  the 
profession,  —  Miner  and  Tully  on  the  "  Fevers  of 
the  Connecticut  Valley."  He  explained  bringing 
me  this  book. 

"Before  beginning  the  regular  study  of  the 
botanic  system,  you  must  understand  something  of 
the  old  system.  You  can  do  so  by  reading  this 
book." 

A  duller  book  I  never  read.  There  was  every 
sort  of  detail  about  different  forms  of  fever,  which 
needed  different  treatment;  yet  calomel  and,  I 
think,  opium  were  its  main  prescriptions.  In  due 
time  I  got  through  it  and  reported  to  my  pre- 
ceptor. 

"  Well,  what  do  you  think  of  the  book  ?  " 

"  It  praises  calomel  and  opium  too  much.  But 
I  infer  from  reading  it  that  there  are  so  many 
kinds  of  fever  and  other  diseases  that  an  immense 
amount  of  study  will  be  required  to  distinguish 
and  treat  them." 

"  Oh,  you  will  find  that  all  these  minute  distinc- 
tions are  not  necessary  when  we  treat  the  sick  on 
the  botanic  system." 

"  What  is  the  next  thing  for  me  ?     Can  I  not 


34=     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

now  go  on  with  the  study  of  the  botanic  sys- 
tem?" 

"  You  are  not  quite  ready  for  it  yet.  You  must 
first  understand  something  about  phrenology. 
One  great  difference  between  us  and  doctors  of 
the  old  school  is  that  they  take  no  account  of 
difference  of  temperament,  but  treat  the  lymphatic 
and  bilious  in  the  same  way.  But  we  treat  accord- 
ing to  the  temperament  of  the  patient  and  must 
therefore  be  expert  in  distinguishing  tempera- 
ments." 

"  But  I  studied  phrenology  long  ago  and  think 
I  understand  it  quite  well." 

He  was  evidently  surprised  at  this  statement, 
but  after  a  little  consideration  said  it  was  very 
necessary  to  be  expert  in  the  subject,  and  thought 
I  had  better  learn  it  more  thoroughly.  He  re- 
turned to  his  bedroom  and  brought  a  copy  of 
Fowler's  "  Phrenology,"  the  very  book  so  familiar 
to  me.  I  had  to  go  over  it  again,  and  did  so  very 
carefully,  paying  special  attention  to  the  study  of 
the  four  temperaments,  —  nervous,  bilious,  lym- 
phatic, and  sanguine. 

Before  many  days  I  again  reported  progress. 
The  doctor  seemed  a  little  impatient,  but  asked  me 
some  questions  about  the  position  of  the  organs 
and  other  matters  pertaining  to  the  subject,  which 
I  answered  promptly  and  correctly  by  putting  my 
fingers  on  them  on  my  own  head.  But  though 
satisfied  with  the  answers,  it  was  easy  to  see  that 
he  was  not  satisfied  with  me.  He  had,  on  one  or 


DOCTOR  FOSHAY  36 

two  previous  occasions,  intimated  that  I  was  not 
wise  and  prudent  in  worldly  matters.  Now  he 
expressed  himself  more  plainly. 

"  This  world  is  all  a  humbug,  and  the  biggest 
humbug  is  the  best  man.  That 's  the  Yankee  doc- 
trine, and  that 's  the  reason  the  Yankees  get  along 
so  well.  You  have  no  organ  of  secretiveness. 
You  have  a  window  in  your  breast  that  every  one 
can  look  into  and  see  what  you  are  thinking  about. 
You  must  shut  that  window  up,  like  I  do.  No  one 
can  tell  from  my  talk  or  looks  what  I  am  thinking 
about." 

It  may  seem  incredible  to  the  reader  that  I  mar- 
veled much  at  the  hidden  meaning  of  this  allegor- 
ical speech,  and  never  for  one  moment  supposed 
it  to  mean  :  "  I,  Dr.  Foshay,  with  my  botanic  sys- 
tem of  medicine,  am  the  biggest  humbug  in  these 
parts,  and  if  you  are  going  to  succeed  with  me 
you  must  be  another."  But  I  had  already  recog- 
nized the  truth  of  his  last  sentence.  Probably 
neither  of  us  had  heard  of  Talleyrand,  but  from 
this  time  I  saw  that  his  hearty  laugh  and  lively 
talk  were  those  of  a  manikin. 

His  demeanor  toward  me  now  became  one  of 
complete  gravity,  formality,  and  silence.  He  was 
always  kindly,  but  never  said  an  unnecessary  word, 
and  avoided  all  reference  to  reading  or  study. 
The  mystery  which  enveloped  him  became  deeper 
month  after  month.  In  his  presence  I  felt  a  cer- 
tain awe  which  prevented  my  asking  any  questions 
as  to  his  intentions  toward  me. 


36     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

It  must,  of  course,  be  a  matter  of  lifelong  re- 
gret that  two  years  so  important  in  one's  edu- 
cation should  have  been  passed  in  such  a  way, 
—  still,  they  were  not  wholly  misspent.  From 
a  teacher  named  Monroe,1  who  then  lived  near 
Salisbury,  I  borrowed  Draper's  Chemistry,  little 
thinking  that  I  would  one  day  count  the  author 
among  my  friends.  A  book  peddler  going  his 
rounds  offered  a  collection  of  miscellaneous  books 
at  auction.  I  bought,  among  others,  a  Latin  and 
a  Greek  grammar,  and  assiduously  commenced  their 
study.  With  the  first  I  was  as  successful  as  could 
be  expected  under  the  circumstances,  but  failed 
with  the  Greek,  owing  to  the  unfamiliarity  of  the 
alphabet,  which  seemed  to  be  an  obstacle  to  mem- 
ory of  the  words  and  forms. 

But  perhaps  the  greatest  event  of  my  stay  was 
the  advent  of  a  botanic  druggist  of  Boston,  who 
passed  through  the  region  with  a  large  wagonload 
of  medicines  and  some  books.  He  was  a  pleasant, 
elderly  gentleman,  and  seemed  much  interested  on 
learning  that  I  was  a  student  of  the  botanic  system. 
He  had  a  botanic  medical  college  in  or  near  Bos- 
ton, and  strongly  urged  me  to  go  thither  as  soon 
as  I  could  get  ready  to  complete  my  studies.  From 
him  the  doctor,  willing  to  do  me  a  favor,  bought 
some  books,  among  them  the  "  Eclectic  Medical 
Dispensary,"  published  in  Cincinnati.  Of  this 

1  Rev.  Alexander  H.  Monroe,  who,  I  have  understood,  afterward 
lived  in  Montreal.  I  have  often  wished  to  find  a  trace  of  him,  but 
do  not  know  whether  he  is  still  living. 


DOCTOR  FOSHAY  37 

book  the  doctor  spoke  approvingly,  as  founded  on 
the  true  system  which  he  himself  practiced,  and 
though  I  never  saw  him  read  it,  he  was  very  ready 
to  accept  the  knowledge  which  I  derived  from  it. 
The  result  was  quite  an  enlargement  of  his  materia 
medica,  both  in  the  direction  of  native  plants  and 
medicines  purchased  from  his  druggist. 

On  one  occasion  this  advance  came  near  having 
serious  consequences.  I  had  compounded  some 
pills  containing  a  minute  quantity  of  elaterium. 
The  doctor  gave  them  to  a  neighboring  youth  af- 
fected with  a  slight  indisposition  in  which  some 
such  remedy  was  indicated.  The  directions  were 
very  explicit,  —  one  pill  every  hour  until  the  de- 
sired effect  was  produced. 

"  Pshaw,"  said  the  patient's  brother,  "  there  's 
nothin'  but  weeds  in  them  pills,  and  a  dozen  of 
them  won't  hurt  you." 

The  idea  of  taking  weed  pills  one  at  a  time 
seemed  too  ridiculous,  and  so  the  whole  number 
were  swallowed  at  a  dose.  The  result  was,  hap- 
pily, not  fatal,  though  impressive  enough  to  greatly 
increase  the  respect  of  the  young  man's  family  for 
our  medicines. 

The  intellectual  life  was  not  wholly  wanting  in 
the  village.  A  lodge  of  a  temperance  organization, 
having  its  headquarters  in  Maine,  was  formed  at  a 
neighboring  village.  It  was  modeled  somewhat 
after  the  fashion  of  the  Sons  of  Temperance.  The 
presiding  officer,  with  a  high  sounding  title,  was  my 
mother's  cousin,  Tommy  Nixon.  He  was  the  most 


38     THE  KEMIN1SCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

popular  young  man  of  the  neighborhood.  The  rudi- 
ments of  a  classical  education  gained  at  a  repu- 
tahle  academy  in  Sackville  had  not  detracted  from 
his  qualities  as  a  healthy,  rollicking  young  farmer. 
The  lodge  had  an  imposing  ritual  of  which  I  well 
remember  one  feature.  At  stated  intervals  a  pass- 
word which  admitted  a  member  of  any  one  lodge  to 
a  meeting  of  any  other  was  received  from  the  central 
authority  —  in  Maine,  I  believe.  It  was  never  to 
be  pronounced  except  to  secure  admission,  and  was 
communicated  to  the  members  by  being  written  on 
a  piece  of  paper  in  letters  so  large  that  all  could 
read.  After  being  held  up  to  view  for  a  few  mo- 
ments, the  paper  was  held  in  the  flame  of  a  candle 
with  these  words :  "  This  paper  containing  our 
secret  password  I  commit  to  the  devouring  element 
in  token  that  it  no  longer  exists  save  in  the  minds 
of  the  faithful  brethren."  The  fine  sonorous  voice 
of  the  speaker  and  his  manly  front,  seen  in  the 
lurid  light  of  the  burning  paper,  made  the  whole 
scene  very  impressive. 

There  was  also  a  society  for  the  discussion  of 
scientific  questions,  of  which  the  founder  and 
leading  spirit  was  a  youth  named  Isaac  Steves, 
who  was  beginning  the  study  of  medicine.  The 
president  was  a  "  Worthy  Archon."  Our  discus- 
sions strayed  into  the  field  of  physiological  mys- 
teries, and  got  us  into  such  bad  odor  with  Mrs. 
Foshay  and,  perhaps,  other  ladies  of  the  commu- 
nity, that  the  meetings  were  abandoned. 

A  soil  like  that  of  the  Provinces  at  this  time  was 


DOCTOR  FOSHAY  39 

fertile  in  odd  characters  including,  possibly,  here 
and  there,  a  "  heart  pregnant  with  celestial  fire." 
One  case  quite  out  of  the  common  line  was  that 
of  two  or  three  brothers  employed  in  a  sawmill 
somewhere  up  the  river  Petticodiac.  According  to 
common  report  they  had  invented  a  new  language 
in  order  to  enable  them  to  talk  together  without 
their  companions  knowing  what  they  were  saying. 
I  knew  one  of  them  well  and,  after  some  time,  ven- 
tured to  inquire  about  this  supposed  tongue.  He 
was  quite  ready  to  explain  it.  The  words  were 
constructed  out  of  English  by  the  very  simple  pro- 
cess of  reversing  the  syllables  or  the  spelling. 
Everything  was  pronounced  backward.  Those  who 
heard  it,  and  knew  the  key,  had  no  difficulty  in 
construing  the  words ;  to  those  who  did  not,  the 
words  were  quite  foreign. 

The  family  of  the  neighborhood  in  which  I  was 
most  intimate  was  that  of  a  Scotch  farmer  named 
Parkin.  Father,  mother,  and  children  were  very 
attractive,  both  socially  and  intellectually,  and  in 
later  years  I  wondered  whether  any  of  them  were 
still  living.  Fifty  years  later  I  had  one  of  the 
greatest  and  most  agreeable  surprises  of  my  life 
in  suddenly  meeting  the  little  boy  of  the  fam- 
ily in  the  person  of  Dr.  George  R.  Parkin,  the 
well-known  promoter  of  imperial  federation  in  Aus- 
tralia and  the  agent  in  arranging  for  the  Rhodes 
scholarships  at  Oxford  which  are  assigned  to 
America. 

My  duties  were  of  the  most  varied  character.     I 


40     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

composed  a  little  couplet  designating  my  profes- 
sions as  those  of 

Physician,  apothecary,  chemist,  and  druggist, 
Girl  about  house  and  boy  in  the  barn. 

I  cared  for  the  horse,  cut  wood  for  the  fire, 
searched  field  and  forest  for  medicinal  herbs,  or- 
dered other  medicines  from  a  druggist 1  in  St.  John, 
kept  the  doctor's  accounts,  made  his  pills,  and  mixed 
his  powders.  This  left  little  time  for  reading  and 
study,  and  such  exercises  were  still  farther  limited 
by  the  necessity  of  pursuing  them  out  of  sight  of 
the  housewife. 

As  time  passed  on,  the  consciousness  that  I  was 
wasting  my  growing  years  increased.  I  long  cher- 
ished a  vague  hope  that  the  doctor  could  and  would 
do  something  to  promote  my  growth  into  a  physi- 
cian, especially  by  taking  me  out  to  see  his  patients. 
This  was  the  recognized  method  of  commencing 
the  study  of  medicine.  But  he  never  proposed 
such  a  course  to  me,  and  never  told  me  how  he  ex- 
pected me  to  become  a  physician.  Every  month 
showed  my  prospects  in  a  less  hopeful  light.  I 
had  rushed  into  my  position  in  blind  confidence  in 
the  man,  and  without  any  appreciation  of  the  re- 
quirements of  a  medical  practitioner.  But  these 
requirements  now  presented  themselves  to  my  mind 
with  constantly  increasing  force.  Foremost  among 
them  was  a  knowledge  of  anatomy,  and  how  could 
that  be  acquired  except  at  a  medical  school  ?  It 

1  Our  druggist  was  Mr.  S.  L.  Tilley,  afterward  Sir  Leonard  Til- 
ley,  the  well-known  Canadian  Minister  of  Finance. 


DOCTOR  FOSHAY  41 

was  every  day  more  evident  that  if  I  continued  in 
my  position  I  should  reach  my  majority  without 
being  trained  for  any  life  but  that  of  a  quack. 

While  in  this  state  of  perplexity,  an  event  hap- 
pened which  suggested  a  way  out.  One  day  the 
neighborhood  was  stirred  by  the  news  that  Tommy 
Nixon  had  run  away  —  left  his  home  without  the 
consent  of  his  parents,  and  sailed  for  the  gold 
fields  of  Australia.  I  was  struck  by  the  absence 
of  any  word  of  reprobation  for  his  act.  The  young 
men  at  least  seemed  to  admire  the  enterprising 
spirit  he  had  displayed.  A  few  weeks  after  his 
departure  a  letter  which  he  wrote  from  London, 
detailing  his  adventures  in  the  great  metropolis, 
was  read  in  my  presence  to  a  circle  of  admiring 
friends  with  expressions  of  wonder  and  surprise. 
This  little  circumstance  made  it  clear  to  me  that 
the  easiest  way  out  of  my  difficulty  was  to  cut  the 
Gordian  knot,  run  away  from  Dr.  Foshay,  and  join 
my  father  in  New  England. 

No  doubt  the  uppermost  question  in  the  mind 
of  the  reader  will  be :  Why  did  you  wait  so  long 
without  having  a  clear  understanding  with  the  doc- 
tor ?  Why  not  ask  him  to  his  face  how  he  ex- 
pected you  to  remain  with  him  when  he  had  failed 
in  his  pledges,  and  demand  that  he  should  either 
keep  them  or  let  you  go  ? 

One  answer,  perhaps  the  first,  must  be  lack  of 
moral  courage  to  face  him  with  such  a  demand.  I 
have  already  spoken  of  the  mystery  which  seemed 
to  enshroud  his  personality,  and  of  the  fascination 


42     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

which,  through  it,  he  seemed  to  exercise  over  me. 
But  behind  this  was  the  conviction  that  he  could 
not  do  anything  for  me  were  he  ever  so  well  dis- 
posed. That  he  was  himself  uneducated  in  many 
essentials  of  his  profession  had  gradually  become 
plain  enough  ;  but  what  he  knew  or  possibly  might 
know  remained  a  mystery.  I  had  heard  occasional 
allusions,  perhaps  from  Mrs.  Foshay  rather  than 
from  himself,  to  an  institution  supposed  to  be  in 
Maine,  where  he  had  studied  medicine,  but  its 
name  and  exact  location  were  never  mentioned. 
Altogether,  if  I  told  him  of  my  intention,  it  could 
not  possibly  do  any  good,  and  he  might  be  able  to 
prevent  my  carrying  it  out,  or  in  some  other  way 
to  do  much  harm.  And  so  I  kept  silent. 

Tuesday,  September  13,  1853,  was  the  day  on 
which  I  fixed  for  the  execution  of  my  plan.  The 
day  previous  I  was  so  abstracted  as  to  excite  re- 
marks both  from  Mrs.  Foshay  and  her  girl  help, 
the  latter  more  than  once  declaring  me  crazy  when 
I  made  some  queer  blunder.  The  fact  is  I  was 
oppressed  by  the  feeling  that  the  step  about  to  be 
taken  was  the  most  momentous  of  my  life.  I 
packed  a  few  books  and  clothes,  including  some 
mementoes  of  my  mother,  and  took  the  box  to  the 
stage  and  post-office  in  the  evening,  to  be  for- 
warded to  an  assumed  name  in  St.  John  the  next 
afternoon.  This  box  I  never  saw  again ;  it  was 
probably  stopped  by  Foshay  before  being  dis- 
patched. My  plan  was  to  start  early  in  the  morn- 
ing, walk  as  far  as  I  could  during  the  day,  and,  in 


DOCTOR  FOSHAY  43 

the  evening,  take  the  mail  stage  when  it  should 
overtake  me.  This  course  was  necessitated  by  the 
fact  that  the  little  money  that  I  had  in  my  pocket 
was  insufficient  to  pay  my  way  to  Boston,  even 
when  traveling  in  the  cheapest  way. 

I  thought  it  only  right  that  the  doctor  should  be 
made  acquainted  with  my  proceeding  and  my  rea- 
son for  taking  it,  so  I  indited  a  short  letter,  which 
I  tried  to  reproduce  from  memory  ten  years  later 
with  the  following  result :  — 

DEAR  DOCTOR,  —  I  write  this  to  let  you  know  of 
the  step  I  am  about  to  take.  When  I  came  to  live  with 
you,  it  was  agreed  that  you  should  make  a  physician  of 
me.  This  agreement  you  have  never  shown  the  slightest 
intention  of  fulfilling  since  the  first  month  I  was  with 
you.  You  have  never  taken  me  to  see  a  patient,  you 
have  never  given  me  any  instruction  or  advice  whatever. 
Beside  this,  you  must  know  that  your  wife  treats  me  in 
a  manner  that  is  no  longer  bearable. 

I  therefore  consider  the  agreement  annulled  from 
your  failure  to  fulfill  your  part  of  it,  and  I  am  going  off 
to  make  my  own  way  in  the  world.  When  you  read 
this,  I  shall  be  far  away,  and  it  is  not  likely  that  we 
shall  ever  meet  again. 

If  my  memory  serves  me  right,  the  doctor  was 
absent  on  a  visit  to  some  distant  patient  on  the 
night  in  question,  and  I  did  not  think  it  likely  that 
he  would  return  until  at  least  noon  on  the  follow- 
ing day.  By  this  time  my  box  would  have  been 
safely  off  in  the  stage,  and  I  would  be  far  out  of 
reach.  To  delay  his  receiving  the  letter  as  much 
as  possible,  I  did  not  leave  it  about  the  house,  but 


44     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

put  it  in  the  window  of  a  shop  across  the  way, 
which  served  the  neighbors  as  a  little  branch  post- 
office. 

But  he  must  have  returned  sooner  than  I  ex- 
pected, for,  to  my  great  regret,  I  never  again  saw 
or  heard  of  the  box,  which  contained,  not  only  the 
entire  outfit  for  my  journey,  but  all  the  books  of 
my  childhood  which  I  had,  as  well  as  the  little 
mementoes  of  my  mother.  The  postmaster  who 
took  charge  of  the  goods  was  a  Mr.  Pitman. 
When  I  again  passed  through  Salisbury,  as  I  did 
ten  years  later,  he  had  moved  away,  no  one  could 
tell  me  exactly  where. 

I  was  on  the  road  before  daybreak,  and  walked 
till  late  at  night,  occasionally  stopping  to  bathe 
my  feet  in  a  brook,  or  to  rest  for  a  few  minutes  in 
the  shadow  of  a  tree.  The  possibility  of  my  being 
pursued  by  the  doctor  was  ever  present  to  my  mind, 
and  led  me  to  keep  a  sharp  lookout  for  coming 
vehicles.  Toward  sunset  a  horse  and  buggy  ap- 
peared, coming  over  a  hill,  and  very  soon  the  re- 
semblance of  vehicle  and  driver  to  the  turnout  of 
the  doctor  became  so  striking  that  I  concealed 
myself  in  the  shrubbery  by  the  wayside  until  the 
sound  of  the  wheels  told  me  he  was  well  past. 
The  probability  that  my  pursuer  was  in  front  of 
me  was  an  added  source  of  discomfort  which  led 
me  to  avoid  the  road  and  walk  in  the  woods  wher- 
ever the  former  was  not  visible  to  some  distance 
ahead.  But  I  neither  saw  nor  heard  anything 
more  of  the  supposed  pursuer,  though,  from  what 


DOCTOR  FOSHAY  45 

I  afterward  learned,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that 
it  was  actually  Foshay  himself. 

The  advent  of  darkness  soon  relieved  me  of  the 
threatened  danger,  but  added  new  causes  of  solici- 
tude. The  evening  advanced,  and  the  lights  in 
the  windows  of  the  houses  were  becoming  fewer 
and  fewer,  and  yet  the  stage  had  not  appeared.  I 
slackened  my  pace,  and  made  many  stops,  begin- 
ning to  doubt  whether  I  might  not  as  well  give  up 
the  stage  and  look  for  an  inn.  It  was,  I  think, 
after  ten  o'clock  when  the  rattling  of  wheels  an- 
nounced its  approach.  It  was  on  a  descending 
grade,  and  passed  me  like  a  meteor,  in  the  dark- 
ness, quite  heedless  of  my  calls  and  gesticulations. 
Fortunately  a  house  was  in  sight  where  I  was  hos- 
pitably entertained,  and  I  was  very  soon  sound 
asleep,  as  became  one  who  had  walked  fifty  miles 
or  more  since  daylight. 

Thus  ended  a  day  to  which  I  have  always  looked 
back  as  the  most  memorable  of  my  life.  I  felt 
its  importance  at  the  time.  As  I  walked  and 
walked,  the  question  in  my  mind  was,  what  am  I 
doing  and  whither  am  I  going?  Am  I  doing 
right  or  wrong  ?  Am  I  going  forward  to  success 
in  life,  or  to  failure  and  degradation?  Vainly, 
vainly,  I  tried  to  peer  into  the  thick  darkness  of 
the  future.  No  definite  idea  of  what  success  might 
mean  could  find  a  place  in  my  mind.  I  had  some- 
times indulged  in  daydreams,  but  these  come  not 
to  a  mind  occupied  as  mine  on  that  day.  And  if 
they  had,  and  if  fancy  had  been  allowed  its  wildest 


46     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

flight  in  portraying  a  future,  it  is  safe  to  say  that 
the  figure  of  an  honorary  academician  of  France, 
seated  in  the  chair  of  Newton  and  Franklin  in  the 
palace  of  the  Institute,  would  not  have  been  found 
in  the  picture. 

As  years  passed  away  I  have  formed  the  habit 
of  looking  back  upon  that  former  self  as  upon  an- 
other person,  the  remembrance  of  whose  emotions 
has  been  a  solace  in  adversity  and  added  zest  to  the 
enjoyment  of  prosperity.  If  depressed  by  trial,  I 
think  how  light  would  this  have  appeared  to  that 
boy  had  a  sight  of  the  future  been  opened  up  to 
him.  When,  in  the  halls  of  learning,  I  have  gone 
through  the  ceremonies  which  made  me  a  citizen  of 
yet  another  commonwealth  in  the  world  of  letters, 
my  thoughts  have  gone  back  to  that  day ;  and  I 
have  wished  that  the  inexorable  law  of  Nature  could 
then  have  been  suspended,  if  only  for  one  moment, 
to  show  the  scene  that  Providence  held  in  reserve. 

Next  morning  I  was  on  my  way  betimes,  having 
still  more  than  thirty  miles  before  me.  And  the 
miles  seemed  much  longer  than  they  did  the  day 
before,  for  my  feet  were  sore  and  my  limbs  stiff. 
Quite  welcome,  therefore,  was  a  lift  offered  by  a 
young  farmer,  who,  driving  a  cart,  overtook  me 
early  in  the  forenoon.  He  was  very  sociable,  and 
we  soon  got  into  an  interesting  conversation. 

I  knew  that  Dr.  Foshay  hailed  from  somewhere 
in  this  region,  where  his  father  still  lived,  so  I 
asked  my  companion  whether  he  knew  a  family  of 
that  name.  He  knew  them  quite  well. 


DOCTOR  FOSHAY  47 

"  Do  you  know  anything  of  one  of  the  sons  who 
is  a  doctor  ?  " 

"  Yes  indeed ;  I  know  all  about  him,  but  he  ain't 
no  doctor.  He  tried  to  set  up  for  one  in  Salisbury, 
but  the  people  there  must  a'  found  him  out  before 
this,  and  I  don't  know  where  he  is  now." 

"  But  I  thought  he  studied  medicine  in  Frederic- 
ton  or  Maine  or  somewhere  on  the  border." 

"  Oh,  he  went  off  to  the  States  and  pretended  to 
study,  but  he  never  did  it.  I  tell  you  he  ain't  no 
more  a  doctor  nor  I  am.  He  ain't  smart  enough 
to  be  a  doctor." 

I  fell  into  a  fit  of  musing  long  enough  to  hear, 
in  my  mind's  ear,  with  startling  distinctness,  the 
words  of  two  years  before  :  "  This  world  is  all  a 
humbug,  and  the  biggest  humbug  is  the  best  man. 
.  .  .  You  have  a  window  in  your  breast  and  you 
must  close  that  window  before  you  can  succeed  in 
life."  Now  I  grasped  their  full  meaning. 

Ten  years  later  I  went  through  the  province  by 
rail  on  my  wedding  journey.  At  Dorchester,  the 
next  village  beyond  Moncton,  I  was  shown  a  place 
where  insolvent  debtors  were  kept  "  on  the  limits." 

"  By  stopping  there,"  said  my  informant,  "  you 
can  see  Dr.  Foshay." 

I  suggested  the  question  whether  it  was  worth 
while  to  break  our  journey  for  the  sake  of  seeing 
him.  The  reply  of  my  informant  deterred  me. 

66  It  can  hardly  be  worth  while  to  do  so.  He  will 
be  a  painful  object  to  see,  —  a  bloated  sot,  drink- 
ing himself  to  death  as  fast  as  he  can." 


48     THE   REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

The  next  I  heard  of  him  was  that  he  had  suc- 
ceeded. 

I  reached  St.  John  on  the  evening  that  a  great 
celebration  of  the  commencement  of  work  on  the 
first  railway  in  the  province  was  in  progress.  When 
things  are  undecided,  small  matters  turn  the  scale. 
The  choice  of  my  day  for  starting  out  on  my  ad- 
venturous journey  was  partly  fixed  by  the  desire  to 
reach  St.  John  and  see  something  of  the  celebra- 
tion. Darkness  came  on  when  I  was  yet  a  mile 
or  two  from  the  city ;  then  the  first  rocket  I  had 
ever  beheld  rose  before  me  in  the  sky.  Two  of 
what  seemed  like  unfortunate  incidents  at  the  time 
were  most  fortunate.  Subsequent  and  disappoint- 
ing experience  showed  that  had  I  succeeded  in 
getting  the  ride  I  wished  in  the  stage,  the  resulting 
depletion  of  my  purse  would  have  been  almost  fatal 
to  my  reaching  my  journey's  end.  Arriving  at  the 
city,  I  naturally  found  all  the  hotels  filled.  At 
length  a  kindly  landlady  said  that,  although  she 
had  no  bed  to  give  me,  I  was  quite  welcome  to  lie 
on  a  soft  carpeted  floor,  in  the  midst  of  people  who 
could  not  find  any  other  sleeping  place.  No  charge 
was  made  for  this  accommodation.  My  hope  of 
finding  something  to  do  which  would  enable  me  to 
earn  a  little  money  in  St.  John  over  and  above  the 
cost  of  a  bed  and  a  daily  loaf  of  bread  was  disap- 
pointed. The  efforts  of  the  next  week  are  so 
painful  to  recall  that  I  will  not  harrow  the  feelings 
of  the  reader  by  describing  them.  Suffice  it  to  say 
that  the  adventure  was  wound  up  by  an  interview  at 


DOCTOR  FOSHAY  49 

Calais,  a  town  on  the  Maine  border,  a  few  miles 
from  Eastport,  with  the  captain  of  a  small  sailing 
vessel,  hardly  more  than  a  boat.  He  was  bound 
for  Salem.  I  asked  him  the  price  of  a  passage. 

"  How  much  money  have  you  ?  "  he  replied. 

I  told  him ;  whether  it  was  one  or  two  dollars  I 
do  not  recall. 

"  I  will  take  you  for  that  if  you  will  help  us  on 
the  voyage." 

The  offer  was  gladly  accepted.  The  little  craft 
was  about  as  near  the  opposite  of  a  clipper  ship  as 
one  can  imagine,  never  intended  to  run  in  any  but 
fair  winds,  and  even  with  that  her  progress  was 
very  slow.  There  was  a  constant  succession  of 
west  winds,  and  the  result  was  that  we  were  about 
three  weeks  reaching  Salem.  Here  I  met  my  father, 
who,  after  the  death  of  my  mother,  had  come  to 
seek  his  fortune  in  the  "  States."  He  had  reached 
the  conclusion,  on  what  grounds  I  do  not  know, 
that  the  eastern  part  of  Maryland  was  a  most  de- 
sirable region,  both  in  the  character  of  its  people 
and  in  the  advantages  which  it  offered  us.  The 
result  was  that,  at  the  beginning  of  1854,  I  found 
myself  teacher  of  a  country  school  at  a  place  called 
Massey's  Cross  Koads  in  Kent  County.  After 
teaching  here  one  year,  I  got  a  somewhat  better 
school  at  the  pleasant  little  village  of  Sudlersville, 
a  few  miles  away. 

Of  my  abilities  as  a  manager  and  teacher  of 
youth  the  reader  can  judge.  Suffice  it  to  say 
that,  looking  back  at  those  two  years,  I  am  deeply 


50     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

impressed  with  the  good  nature  of  the  people  in 
tolerating  me  at  all. 

My  most  pleasant  recollection  is  that  of  two  of 
my  best  pupils  of  Sudlersville,  nearly  my  own  age. 
One  was  Arthur  E.  Sudler,  for  whose  special  benefit 
some  chemical  apparatus  was  obtained  from  Phila- 
delphia. He  afterwards  studied  medicine  at  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania  and  delighted  me  by 
writing  that  what  I  had  taught  him  placed  him 
among  the  best  in  his  class  in  chemistry.  The 
other  was  B.  S.  Elliott,  who  afterward  became  an 
engineer  or  surveyor. 

One  of  my  most  vivid  recollections  at  Massey's 
relates  to  a  subject  which  by  no  means  forms  a 
part  of  one's  intellectual  development,  and  yet  is 
at  the  bottom  of  all  human  progress,  that  of  diges- 
tion. The  staple  food  of  the  inhabitants  of  a 
Southern  farming  region  was  much  heartier  than 
any  to  which  I  had  been  accustomed.  "  Pork  and 
pone  "  were  the  staples,  the  latter  being  a  rather 
coarse  cake  with  little  or  no  seasoning,  baked  from 
cornmeal.  This  was  varied  by  a  compound  called 
"  shortcake,"  a  mixture  of  flour  and  lard,  rapidly 
baked  in  a  pan,  and  eaten  hot.  Though  not  dis- 
tasteful, I  thought  it  as  villainous  a  compound  as 
a  civilized  man  would  put  into  his  stomach. 

Quite  near  my  school  lived  a  young  bachelor 
farmer  who  might  be  designated  as  William  Bowler, 
Esq.,  though  he  was  better  known  as  Billy  Bowler. 
He  had  been  educated  partly  at  Delaware  College, 
Newark,  and  was  therefore  an  interesting  young 


DOCTOR  FOSHAY  51 

man  to  know.  In  describing  his  experiences  at 
the  college,  he  once  informed  me  that  they  were 
all  very  pleasant  except  in  a  single  point ;  that  was 
the  miserably  poor  food  that  the  students  got  to 
eat.  He  could  not,  he  declared,  get  along  without 
good  eating.  This  naturally  suggested  that  my 
friend  was  something  of  a  gourmand.  Great,  there- 
fore, was  my  delight  when,  a  few  weeks  later,  he 
expressed  a  desire  to  have  me  board  with  him.  I 
accepted  the  offer  as  soon  as  possible.  Much  to 
my  disappointment,  shortcake  was  on  the  table  at 
the  first  meal  and  again  at  the  second.  It  proved 
to  be  the  principal  dish  twice,  and  I  am  not  sure 
but  three  times  a  day.  The  other  staple  was  fried 
meat.  On  the  whole  this  was  worse  than  pork  and 
pone,  which,  if  not  toothsome,  was  at  least  whole- 
some. As  the  days  grew  into  weeks,  I  wondered 
what  Delaware  College  could  give  its  students  to 
eat.  To  increase  the  perplexity,  there  were  plenty 
of  chickens  in  the  yard  and  vegetables  in  the  gar- 
den. I  asked  the  cook  if  she  could  not  boil  some 
vegetables  and  bring  them  on  the  table. 

"  Mas'er  Bowler  don't  like  wegetable." 

Then  I  found  that  the  chickens  were  being  con- 
sumed in  the  kitchen  and  asked  for  one. 

"  Mas'er  Bowler  don't  like  chicken,"  was  the 
reply,  with  an  added  intimation  that  the  chickens 
belonged  to  the  denizens  of  the  kitchen. 

The  mystery  was  now  so  dark  and  deep  that  I 
determined  to  fathom  it.  I  drew  Mr.  Bowler  into 
conversation  once  more  about  Delaware  College, 


52     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

and  asked  him  what  the  students  had  to  eat  when 
there. 

He  had  evidently  forgotten  his  former  remark 
and  described  what  seemed  to  me  a  fairly  well  pro- 
vided students'  table.  Now  I  came  down  on  him 
with  my  crusher. 

"  You  told  me  once  that  the  table  was  miserably 
poor,  so  that  you  could  hardly  stand  it.  What  fault 
had  you  to  find  with  it?" 

He  reflected  a  moment,  apparently  recalling  his 
impression,  then  replied  :  "  Oh,  they  had  no  short- 
cake there !  " 

In  1854  I  availed  myself  of  my  summer  vacation 
to  pay  my  first  visit  to  the  national  capital,  little 
dreaming  that  it  would  ever  be  my  home.  I  went 
as  far  as  the  gate  of  the  observatory,  and  looked 
wistfully  in,  but  feared  to  enter,  as  I  did  not  know 
what  the  rules  might  be  regarding  visitors.  I 
speculated  upon  the  possible  object  of  a  queer  red 
sandstone  building,  which  seemed  so  different  from 
anything  else,  and  heard  for  the  first  time  of  the 
Smithsonian  Institution. 

On  the  very  beginning  of  my  work  at  Massey's 
the  improvement  in  my  position  was  so  remarkable 
that  I  felt  my  rash  step  of  a  few  months  before 
fully  justified.  I  wrote  in  triumph  to  my  favorite 
aunt,  Rebecca  Prince,  that  leaving  Dr.  Foshay  was 
the  best  thing  I  had  ever  done.  I  was  no  longer 
"  that  boy,"  but  a  respectable  young  man  with  a 
handle  to  my  name. 

Just  what  object  I  should  pursue  in  life  was  still 


DOCTOR  FOSHAY  53 

doubtful ;  the  avenues  of  the  preferment  I  would 
have  liked  seemed  to  be  closed  through  my  not 
being  a  college  graduate.  I  had  no  one  to  advise 
me  as  to  the  subjects  I  should  pursue  or  the  books 
I  should  study.  On  such  books  as  I  could  get,  I 
passed  every  spare  hour.  My  father  sent  me  Cob- 
bett's  English  Grammar,  which  I  found  amusing 
and  interesting,  especially  the  criticisms  upon  the 
grammar  found  here  and  there  in  royal  addresses 
to  Parliament  and  other  state  papers.  On  the 
whole  I  am  not  sure  but  that  the  book  justified  my 
father's  good  opinion,  although  I  cannot  but  think 
that  it  was  rather  hypercritical.  I  had  been  taught 
the  rudiments  of  French  in  Wallace  when  quite  a 
child  by  a  Mr.  Oldright,  of  whose  methods  and 
pronunciation  my  memory  gives  me  a  most  favor- 
able impression.  I  now  got  Cobbett's  French 
Grammar,  probably  a  much  less  commendable  book 
than  his  English  one.  I  had  never  yet  fathomed 
the  mysteries  of  analytic  geometry  or  the  calculus, 
and  so  got  Davies'  books  on  those  subjects.  That 
on  .the  calculus  was  perhaps  the  worst  that  could 
be.  put  into  the  hands  of  a  person  situated  as  I 
was.  Two  volumes  of  Bezout's  Mathematics,  in 
French,  about  a  century  old,  were,  I  think,  rather 
better.  Say's  Political  Economy  was  the  first  book 
I  read  on  that  subject,  and  it  was  quite  a  delight 
to  see  human  affairs  treated  by  scientific  methods. 
I  finally  reached  the  conclusion  that  mathematics 
was  the  study  I  was  best  fitted  to  follow,  though 
I  did  not  clearly  see  in  what  way  I  should  turn 


54:     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

the  subject  to  account.  I  knew  that  Newton's 
"  Principia"  was  a  celebrated  book,  so  I  got  a  copy 
of  the  English  translation.  The  path  through  it 
was  rather  thorny,  but  I  at  least  caught  the  spirit 
here  and  there.  No  teacher  at  the  present  time 
would  think  of  using  it  as  a  text-book,  yet  as  a 
mental  discipline,  and  for  the  purpose  of  enabling 
one  to  form  a  mental  image  of  the  subject,  its 
methods  at  least  are  excellent.  I  got  a  copy  of 
the  "American  Journal  of  Science,"  hoping  it 
might  enlighten  me,  but  was  frightened  by  its 
big  words,  and  found  nothing  that  I  could  under- 
stand. 

During  the  year  at  Sudlersville  I  made  several 
efforts  which,  though  they  were  insignificant  so 
far  as  immediate  results  were  concerned,  were  in 
some  respects  of  importance  for  my  future  work. 
With  no  knowledge  of  algebra  except  what  was 
derived  from  the  meagre  text-books  I  could  pick 
up,  —  not  having  heard  even  the  name  of  Abel,  or 
knowing  what  view  of  the  subject  was  taken  by 
professional  mathematicians,  —  I  made  my  first  at- 
tempt at  a  scientific  article,  "  A  New  Demonstra- 
tion of  the  Binomial  Theorem."  This  I  sent  to 
Professor  Henry,  secretary  of  the  Smithsonian  In- 
stitution, to  see  if  he  deemed  it  suitable  for  publi- 
cation. He  promptly  replied  in  the  negative,  but 
offered  to  submit  it  to  a  professional  mathemati- 
cian for  an  opinion  of  its  merits.  I  gladly  accepted 
this  proposal,  which  was  just  what  I  wanted.  In 
due  course  a  copy  of  the  report  was  sent  me.  One 


DOCTOR  FOSHAY  55 

part  of  the  work  was  praised  for  its  elegance,  but 
a  lack  of  completeness  and  rigor  was  pointed  out. 
It  was  accompanied  by  a  pleasant  note  from  Pro- 
fessor Henry  remarking  that,  while  not  so  favor- 
able as  I  might  have  expected,  it  was  sufficiently 
so  to  encourage  me  in  persevering. 

The  other  effort  to  which  I  refer  was  of  quite 
a  different  character.  A  copy  of  the  "  National 
Intelligencer/'  intended  for  some  subscriber  who 
had  left  Sudlersville,  came  to  the  post-office  for 
several  months,  and,  there  being  no  claimant,  I 
frequently  had  an  opportunity  to  read  it.  One  of 
its  features  was  frequent  letters  from  volunteer 
writers  on  scientific  subjects.  Among  these  was  a 
long  letter  from  one  G.  W.  Eveleth,  the  object  of 
which  was  to  refute  the  accepted  theory  of  the 
universe,  especially  the  view  of  Copernicus.  For 
aught  I  knew  Mr.  Eveleth  held  as  high  a  position 
as  any  one  else  in  the  world  of  science  and  letters, 
so  I  read  his  article  carefully.  It  was  evidently 
wholly  fallacious,  yet  so  plausible  that  I  feared  the 
belief  of  the  world  in  the  doctrine  of  Copernicus 
might  suffer  a  severe  shock,  and  hastened  to  the 
rescue  by  writing  a  letter  over  my  own  name, 
pointing  out  the  fallacies.  This  was  published 
in  the  "  National  Intelligencer  "  —  if  my  memory 
serves  me  right  —  in  1855.  My  full  name,  printed 
in  large  capitals,  in  a  newspaper,  at  the  bottom  of 
a  letter,  filled  me  with  a  sense  of  my  temerity  in 
appearing  so  prominently  in  print,  as  if  I  were  in- 
truding into  company  where  I  might  not  be  wanted. 


56     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

My  letter  had  two  most  unexpected  and  gratify- 
ing results.  One  was  a  presentation  of  a  copy  of 
Lee's  "  Tables  and  Formulae/'  which  came  to  me 
a  few  days  later  through  the  mail  with  the  compli- 
ments of  Colonel  Abert.  Not  long  afterward  came 
a  letter  from  Professor  J.  Lawrence  Smith,  after- 
ward a  member  of  the  National  Academy  of  Sci- 
ences, transmitting  a  copy  of  a  pamphlet  by  him 
on  the  theory  that  meteorites  were  masses  thrown 
up  from  the  volcanoes  of  the  moon,  and  asking  my 
opinion  on  the  subject. 

I  had  not  yet  gotten  into  the  world  of  light. 
But  I  felt  as  one  who,  standing  outside,  could 
knock  against  the  wall  and  hear  an  answering 
knock  from  within. 

The  beginning  of  1856  found  me  teaching  in 
the  family  of  a  planter  named  Bryan,  residing  in 
Prince  George  County,  Md.,  some  fifteen  or  twenty 
miles  from  Washington.  This  opened  up  new  op- 
portunities. I  could  ride  into  Washington  when- 
ever I  wished,  leave  my  horse  at  a  livery  stable, 
and  see  whatever  sights  the  city  offered.  The 
Smithsonian  Library  was  one  of  the  greatest  attrac- 
tions. Sometime  in  May,  1856,  I  got  permission 
from  the  attendant  in  charge  to  climb  into  the 
gallery  and  see  the  mathematical  books.  Here  I 
was  delighted  to  find  the  greatest  treasure  that  my 
imagination  had  ever  pictured,  —  a  work  that  I 
had  thought  of  almost  as  belonging  to  fairyland. 
And  here  it  was  right  before  my  eyes  —  four 
enormous  volumes,  —  "  Mecanique  Celeste,  by  the 


DOCTOR  FOSHAY  57 

Marquis  de  Laplace,  Peer  of  France ;  translated 
by  Nathaniel  Bowditch,  LL.  D.,  Member  of  the 
Royal  Societies  of  London,  Edinburg,  and  Dublin." 
I  inquired  as  to  the  possibility  of  my  borrowing  the 
first  volume,  and  was  told  that  this  could  be  done 
only  by  special  authority  of  Professor  Henry.  I 
soon  got  the  necessary  authority  through  Mr. 
Rhees,  the  chief  clerk,  whose  kindness  in  the 
matter  deeply  impressed  me,  signed  a  promise  to 
return  it  within  one  month,  and  carried  it  in 
triumph  to  my  little  schoolhouse.  I  dipped  into 
it  here  and  there,  but  at  every  step  was  met  by 
formulae  and  methods  quite  beyond  the  power  of 
one  who  knew  so  little  of  mathematics.  In  due 
time  I  brought  the  book  back  as  promised. 

Up  to  this  time  I  think  I  had  never  looked 
upon  a  real  live  professor ;  certainly  not  upon  one 
of  eminence  in  the  scientific  world.  I  wondered 
whether  there  was  any  possibility  of  my  making 
the  acquaintance  of  so  great  a  man  as  Professor 
Henry.  Some  time  previous  a  little  incident  had 
occurred  which  caused  me  some  uneasiness  on  the 
subject.  I  had  started  out  very  early  on  a  visit  to 
Washington,  or  possibly  I  had  stayed  there  all 
night.  At  any  rate,  I  reached  the  Smithsonian 
Building  quite  early,  opened  the  main  door, 
stepped  cautiously  into  the  vestibule,  and  looked 
around.  Here  I  was  met  by  a  short,  stout,  and 
exceedingly  gruff  sort  of  a  man,  who  looked  upon 
my  entrance  with  evident  displeasure.  He  said 
scarcely  a  word,  but  motioned  me  out  of  the  door, 


58     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

and  showed  me  a  paper  or  something  in  the  entrance 
which  intimated  that  the  Institution  would  be  open 
at  nine  o'clock.  It  was  some  three  minutes  before 
that  hour,  so  I  was  an  intruder.  The  man  looked 
so  respectable  and  so  commanding  in  his  appear- 
ance that  I  wondered  if  he  could  be  Professor 
Henry,  yet  sincerely  hoped  he  was  not.  I  after- 
ward found  that  he  was  only  "  Old  Peake,"  the  jan- 
itor.1 When  I  found  the  real  Professor  Henry  he 
received  me  with  characteristic  urbanity,  told  me 
something  of  his  own  studies,  and  suggested  that 
I  might  find  something  to  do  in  the  Coast  Survey, 
but  took  no  further  steps  at  that  time. 

The  question  whether  I  was  fitted  for  any  such 
employment  now  became  of  great  interest.  The 
principal  question  was  whether  one  must  know 
celestial  mechanics  in  order  to  secure  such  a  posi- 
tion, so,  after  leaving  Professor  Henry,  I  made  my 
way  to  the  Coast  Survey  office,  and  was  shown  to 
the  chief  clerk,  as  the  authority  for  the  informa- 
tion. I  modestly  asked  him  whether  a  knowledge 
of  physical  astronomy  was  necessary  to  a  position 
in  that  office.  Instead  of  frankly  telling  me  that 
he  did  not  know  what  physical  astronomy  was,  he 
answered  in  the  affirmative.  So  I  left  with  the 
impression  that  I  must  master  the  "  Mecanique 
Celeste  "  or  some  similar  treatise  before  finding  any 
opening  there. 

1  Peake,  notwithstanding  his  official  title,  would  seem  to  have 
been  more  than  an  ordinary  janitor,  as  he  was  the  author  of  a 
Guide  to  the  Smithsonian  Institution. 


DOCTOR  FOSHAY  59 

I  could  not,  of  course,  be  satisfied  with  a  single 
visit  to  such  a  man,  and  so  called  several  times 
during  the  year.  One  thing  I  wondered  about 
was  whether  he  would  remember  me  when  he  again 
saw  me.  On  one  occasion  I  presented  him  with  a 
plan  for  improving  the  Cavendish  method  of  deter- 
mining the  density  of  the  earth,  which  he  took 
very  kindly.  I  subsequently  learned  that  he  was 
much  interested  in  this  problem.  On  another  occa- 
sion he  gave  me  a  letter  to  Mr.  J.  E.  Hilgard, 
assistant  in  charge  of  the  Coast  Survey  office.  My 
reception  by  the  latter  was  as  delightful  as  that  by 
Professor  Henry.  I  found  from  my  first  interview 
with  him  that  the  denizens  of  the  world  of  light 
were  up  to  the  most  sanguine  conceptions  I  ever 
could  have  formed. 

At  this  time,  or  probably  some  time  before,  I 
bought  a  copy  of  the  "  American  Ephemeris"  for 
1858,  and  amused  myself  by  computing  on  a  slate 
the  occultations  visible  at  San  Francisco  during  the 
first  few  months  of  the  year.  At  this  time  I  had 
learned  nothing  definite  from  Mr.  Hilgard  as  to 
employment  in  his  office.  But  about  December, 
1856,  I  received  a  note  from  him  stating  that  he 
had  been  talking  about  me  to  Professor  Winlock, 
superintendent  of  the  "Nautical  Almanac,"  and 
that  I  might  possibly  get  employment  on  that 
work.  When  I  saw  him  again  I  told  him  that  I 
had  not  yet  acquired  such  a  knowledge  of  physical 
astronomy  as  would  be  necessary  for  the  calcula- 
tions in  question ;  but  he  assured  me  that  this  was 


60     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

no  drawback,  as  formulae  for  all  the  computations 
would  be  supplied  me.  I  was  far  from  satisfied 
at  the  prospect  of  doing  nothing  more  than  mak- 
ing routine  calculations  with  formulae  prepared  by 
others ;  indeed,  it  was  almost  a  disappointment  to 
find  that  I  was  considered  qualified  for  such  a  place. 
I  could  only  console  myself  by  the  reflection  that 
the  ease  of  the  work  would  not  hinder  me  from 
working  my  way  up.  Shortly  afterward  I  under- 
stood that  it  was  at  least  worth  while  to  present 
myself  at  Cambridge,  and  so  started  out  on  a  jour- 
ney thither  about  the  last  day  of  the  year  1856. 

At  that  time  even  a  railroad  journey  was  quite 
different  from  what  it  is  now.  The  cars  were  drawn 
through  Baltimore  by  horses.  At  Havre  de  Grace 
the  train  had  to  stop  and  the  passengers  were  taken 
across  the  river  in  a  ferryboat  to  another  train. 
At  Philadelphia  the  city  had  to  be  traversed  by 
transfer  coaches.  Looking  around  for  this  convey- 
ance, I  met  a  man  who  said  he  had  it.  He  shoved 
me  into  it  and  drove  off.  I  remarked  with  suspi- 
cion that  no  other  coaches  were  accompanying  us. 
After  a  pretty  long  drive  the  speed  of  the  horses 
gradually  began  to  slacken.  At  length  it  came  to 
a  complete  stop  in  front  of  a  large  building,  and  I 
got  out.  But  it  was  only  a  freight  station,  locked 
up  and  dark  throughout.  The  driver  mumbled 
something  about  his  fare,  then  rolled  back  on  his 
seat,  seemingly  dead  drunk.  The  nearest  sign  of 
life  was  at  a  tavern  a  block  or  two  away.  There 
I  found  that  I  was  only  a  short  distance  from  the 


DOCTOR  FOSHAY  61 

station  of  departure,  and  reached  my  train  barely 
in  time. 

Landing  in  New  York  at  the  first  glimmer  of 
dawn,  near  the  end  of  the  line  of  passengers  I 
was  momentarily  alarmed  to  see  a  man  pick  up 
what  seemed  to  be  a  leather  purse  from  right  be- 
tween my  feet.  It  was  brown  and,  so  far  as  I 
could  see,  just  like  my  own.  I  immediately  felt 
the  breast  pocket  of  my  coat  and  found  that  my 
own  was  quite  safe.  The  man  who  picked  up  the 
purse  inquired  in  the  politest  tone  possible  if  it  was 
mine,  to  which  I  replied  in  the  negative.  He  re- 
treated a  short  distance  and  then  a  bystander  came 
up  and  chided  me  in  a  whisper  for  my  folly  in  not 
claiming  the  purse.  The  only  reply  he  got  was, 
"  Oh,  I  'm  up  to  all  your  tricks."  On  a  repetition 
of  this  assurance  the  pair  sneaked  away. 

Arriving  at  Cambridge,  I  sought  out  Professor 
Winlock  and  was  informed  that  no  immediate  em- 
ployment was  open  at  his  office.  It  would  be  neces- 
sary for  him  to  get  authority  from  Washington. 
After  this  was  obtained  some  hope  might  be  held 
out,  so  I  appeared  in  the  office  from  time  to  time 
as  a  visitor,  my  first  visit  being  that  described  in 
the  opening  chapter. 


m 

THE   WORLD    OF   SWEETNESS   AND   LIGHT 

THE  term  "  Nautical  Almanac  "  is  an  unfortunate 
misnomer  for  what  is,  properly  speaking,  the  "  As- 
tronomical Ephemeris."  It  is  quite  a  large  vol- 
ume, from  which  the  world  draws  all  its  knowledge 
of  times  and  seasons,  the  motions  of  the  heavenly 
bodies,  the  past  and  future  positions  of  the  stars 
and  planets,  eclipses,  and  celestial  phenomena  gen- 
erally which  admit  of  prediction.  It  is  the  basis 
on  which  the  family  almanac  is  to  rest.  It  also 
contains  the  special  data  needed  to  enable  the  as- 
tronomer and  navigator  to  determine  their  position 
on  land  or  sea.  The  first  British  publication  of 
the  sort,  prepared  by  Maskelyne,  Astronomer  Koyal, 
a  century  ago,  was  intended  especially  for  the  use 
of  navigators ;  hence  the  familiar  appellation,  which 
I  call  unfortunate  because  it  leads  to  the  impression 
that  the  work  is  simply  an  enlargement  and  im- 
provement of  the  household  almanac. 

The  leading  nations  publish  ephemerides  of  this 
sort.  The  introductions  and  explanations  are,  of 
course,  in  the  languages  of  the  respective  countries ; 
but  the  contents  of  the  volume  are  now  so  much 
alike  that  the  duplication  of  work  involved  in  pre- 


THE  WORLD  OF  SWEETNESS  AND  LIGHT       63 

paring  them  seems  quite  unnecessary.  Yet  national 
pride  and  emulation  will  probably  continue  it  for 
some  time  to  come. 

The  first  appropriation  for  an  American  ephem- 
eris  and  nautical  almanac  was  made  by  Congress  in 
1849.  Lieutenant  Charles  Henry  Davis,  as  a  leader 
and  moving  spirit  in  securing  the  appropriation, 
was  naturally  made  the  first  superintendent  of  the 
work.  At  that  time  astronomical  science  in  our 
country  was  so  far  from  being  reduced  to  a  system 
that  it  seemed  necessary  to  have  the  work  prepared 
at  some  seat  of  learning.  So,  instead  of  founding 
the  office  in  Washington,  it  was  established  at 
Cambridge,  the  seat  of  Harvard  University,  where 
it  could  have  the  benefit  of  the  technical  knowledge 
of  experts,  and  especially  of  Professor  Benjamin 
Peirce,  who  was  recognized  as  the  leading  mathe- 
matician of  America.  Here  it  remained  until  1866, 
when  conditions  had  so  far  changed  that  the  office 
was  removed  to  Washington,  where  it  has  since 
remained. 

To  this  work  I  was  especially  attracted  because 
its  preparation  seemed  to  me  to  embody  the  high- 
est inteUectual  power  to  which  man  had  ever 
attained.  The  matter  used  to  present  itself  to  my 
mind  somewhat  in  this  way  :  Supply  any  man  with 
the  fundamental  data  of  astronomy,  the  times  at 
which  stars  and  planets  cross  the  meridian  of  a 
place,  and  other  matters  of  this  kind.  He  is  in- 
formed that  each  of  these  bodies  whose  observations 
he  is  to  use  is  attracted  by  all  the  others  with  a 


64     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

force  which  varies  as  the  inverse  square  of  their 
distance  apart.  From  these  data  he  is  to  weigh 
the  bodies,  predict  their  motion  in  all  future  time, 
compute  their  orbits,  determine  what  changes  of 
form  and  position  these  orbits  will  undergo  through 
thousands  of  ages,  and  make  maps  showing  ex- 
actly over  what  cities  and  towns  on  the  surface  of 
the  earth  an  eclipse  of  the  sun  will  pass  fifty 
years  hence,  or  over  what  regions  it  did  pass 
thousands  of  years  ago.  A  more  hopeless  problem 
than  this  could  not  be  presented  to  the  ordinary 
human  intellect.  There  are  tens  of  thousands  of 
men  who  could  be  successful  in  all  the  ordinary 
walks  of  life,  hundreds  who  could  wield  empires, 
thousands  who  could  gain  wealth,  for  one  who 
could  take  up  this  astronomical  problem  with  any 
hope  of  success.  The  men  who  have  done  it  are 
therefore  in  intellect  the  select  few  of  the  human 
race,  —  an  aristocracy  ranking  above  all  others  in 
the  scale  of  being.  The  astronomical  ephemeris  is 
the  last  practical  outcome  of  their  productive  genius. 
On  the  question  whether  the  world  generally 
reasoned  in  this  way,  I  do  not  remember  having 
any  distinct  idea.  This  was  certainly  not  because 
I  was  indifferent  to  the  question,  but  because  it 
never  strongly  presented  itself  to  my  mind.  From 
my  point  of  view  it  would  not  have  been  an  impor- 
tant one,  because  I  had  already  formed  the  convic- 
tion that  one  should  choose  that  sphere  in  life  to 
which  he  was  most  strongly  attracted,  or  for  which 
his  faculties  best  fitted  him. 


THE  WORLD  OF  SWEETNESS  AND  LIGHT       65 

A  few  months  previous  to  my  advent  Commander 
Davis  had  been  detached  from  the  superintendency 
and  ordered  to  command  the  sloop  St.  Mary's.  He 
was  succeeded  by  Professor  Joseph  Winlock,  who 
afterward  succeeded  George  P.  Bond  as  director  of 
the  Harvard  Observatory.  Most  companionable  in 
the  society  of  his  friends,  Winlock  was  as  silent 
as  General  Grant  with  the  ordinary  run  of  men. 
Withal,  he  had  a  way  of  putting  his  words  into 
exact  official  form.  The  following  anecdote  of 
him  used  to  be  current.  While  he  was  attached  to 
the  Naval  Academy,  he  was  introduced  one  even- 
ing at  a  reception  to  a  visiting  lady.  He  looked 
at  the  lady  for  a  decorous  length  of  time,  and  she 
looked  at  him ;  then  they  parted  without  saying 
a  word.  His  introducer  watched  the  scene,  and 
asked  him,  "  Why  did  you  not  talk  to  that  lady  ?  " 

"  I  had  no  statement  to  make  to  her,"  was  the 
reply. 

Dr.  Gould  told  me  this  story  was  founded  on 
fact,  but  when,  after  Winlock' s  death,  it  was  put 
off  on  me  with  some  alterations,  I  felt  less  sure. 

The  following  I  believe  to  be  authentic.  It  oc- 
curred several  years  later.  Hilgard,  in  charge  of 
the  Coast  Survey  office,  was  struck  by  the  official 
terseness  of  the  communications  he  occasionally 
received  from  Winlock,  and  resolved  to  be  his  rival. 
They  were  expecting  additions  to  their  families 
about  the  same  time,  and  had  doubtless  spoken  of 
the  subject.  When  Hilgard's  arrived,  he  addressed 
a  communication  to  Winlock  in  these  terms :  — 


66     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

"  Mine  's  a  boy.    What 's  yours  ?  " 
In  due  course  of  time  the  following  letter  was 
received  in  reply :  — 

DEAR  HILGARD:  — 

Boy. 

Yours,  etc.,  J.  WINLOCK. 

When  some  time  afterward  I  spoke  to  Winlock 
on  the  subject,  and  told  him  what  Hilgard's  motive 
was,  he  replied,  "  It  was  not  fair  in  Hilgard  to  try 
and  take  me  unawares  in  that  way.  Had  I  known 
what  he  was  driving  at,  I  might  have  made  my 
letter  still  shorter."  I  did  not  ask  him  how  he 
would  have  done  it.  It  is  of  interest  that  the 
"  boy  "  afterward  became  one  of  the  assistant  sec- 
retaries of  the  Smithsonian  Institution. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  features  of  the  his- 
tory of  the  "Nautical  Almanac"  is  the  number  of 
its  early  assistants  who  have  gained  prominence  or 
distinction  in  the  various  walks  of  life.  It  would 
be  difficult  to  find  so  modest  a  public  work  to  ex- 
ceed it  in  this  respect. 

John  D.  Runkle,  who  lived  till  1902,  was,  as  I 
have  said,  the  senior  and  leading  assistant  in  the 
office.  He  afterward  became  a  professor  in  the  In- 
stitute of  Technology,  and  succeeded  Rogers  as  its 
president.  In  1876  he  started  the  school  of  man- 
ual training,  which  has  since  been  one  of  the  great 
features  of  the  Institute.  He  afterward  resigned 
the  presidency,  but  remained  its  principal  professor 
of  mathematics.  He  was  the  editor  and  founder 


THE  WORLD  OF  SWEETNESS  AND  LIGHT       67 

of  the  "  Mathematical  Monthly,"  of  which  I  shall 
presently  have  more  to  say. 

The  most  wonderful  genius  in  the  office,  and  the 
one  who  would  have  been  the  most  interesting  sub- 
ject of  study  to  a  psychologist,  was  Truman  Henry 
Safford.  In  early  childhood  he  had  excited  atten- 
tion by  his  precocity  as  what  is  now  sometimes 
called  a  "  lightning  calculator."  A  committee  of 
the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Science  was 
appointed  to  examine  him.  It  very  justly  and 
wisely  reported  that  his  arithmetical  powers  were 
not  in  themselves  equal  to  those  of  some  others  on 
record,  especially  Zerah  Colburn,  but  that  they 
seemed  to  be  the  outcome  of  a  remarkable  develop- 
ment of  the  reasoning  power.  When  nine  years 
old,  he  computed  almanacs,  and  some  of  his  work 
at  this  age  is  still  preserved  in  the  Harvard  Univer- 
sity Library.  He  graduated  at  Harvard  in  1854,  and 
was  soon  afterward  taken  into  the  Nautical  Alma- 
nac Office,  while  he  also  worked  from  time  to  time 
at  the  Cambridge  observatory.  It  was  found,  how- 
ever, that  the  power  of  continuous  work  was  no 
greater  in  him  than  in  others,  nor  did  he  succeed 
in  doing  more  than  others  in  the  course  of  a  year. 

The  mental  process  by  which  certain  gifted 
arithmetical  computers  reach  almost  in  an  instant 
the  results  of  the  most  complicated  calculations  is 
a  psychological  problem  of  great  interest,  which 
has  never  been  investigated.  No  more  promising 
subject  for  the  investigation  could  ever  have  been 
found  than  Safford,  and  I  greatly  regret  having 


68     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

lost  all  opportunities  to  solve  the  problem.  What 
was  of  interest  in  Safford's  case  was  the  connection 
of  this  faculty  with  other  remarkable  mental  powers 
of  an  analogous  but  yet  different  kind.  He  had 
a  remarkable  faculty  for  acquiring,  using,  and  read- 
ing languages,  and  would  have  been  an  accom- 
plished linguist  had  he  turned  his  attention  in  that 
direction.  He  was  a  walking  bibliography  of  as- 
tronomy, which  one  had  only  to  consult  in  order 
to  learn  in  a  moment  what  great  astronomers  of 
recent  times  had  written  on  almost  any  subject, 
where  their  work  was  published,  and  on  what  shelf 
of  the  Harvard  Library  the  book  could  be  found. 
But  the  faculty  most  closely  connected  with  cal- 
culation was  a  quickness  and  apprehension  of 
vision,  of  which  the  following  is  an  example :  — 

About  1876  he  visited  the  Naval  Observatory  in 
Washington  for  the  first  tune  in  his  life.  We 
wanted  a  certain  catalogue  of  stars  and  went 
together  into  the  library.  The  required  catalogue 
was  on  one  of  a  tier  of  shelves  containing  al- 
together a  hundred,  or  perhaps  several  hundred 
volumes.  "  I  do  not  know  whether  we  have  the 
book,"  said  I,  "  but  if  we  have,  it  is  on  one  of 
these  shelves."  I  began  to  go  through  the  slow 
process  of  glancing  at  the  books  one  by  one  until 
my  eyes  should  strike  the  right  title.  He  stood 
back  six  or  eight  feet  and  took  in  all  the  shelves 
seemingly  at  one  glance,  then  stepped  forward  and 
said,  "  Here  it  is."  I  might  have  supposed  this 
an  accident,  but  that  he  subsequently  did  practi- 


THE  WORLD  OF  SWEETNESS  AND  LIGHT       69 

cally  the  same  thing  in  my  office,  selecting  in  a 
moment  a  book  we  wanted  to  see,  after  throwing 
a  rapid  glance  over  shelves  containing  perhaps  a 
hundred  volumes. 

An  example  of  his  apprehension  and  memory 
for  numbers  was  narrated  by  Mr.  Alvan  Clark. 
When  the  latter  had  completed  one  of  his  great 
telescopes  for  the  University  of  Chicago,  Safford 
had  been  named  as  director,  and  accompanied  the 
three  members  of  the  firm  to  the  city  when  they 
carried  the  object  glass  thither.  On  leaving  the 
train  all  four  took  their  seats  in  a  hotel  omnibus, 
Safford  near  the  door.  Then  they  found  that  they 
had  forgotten  to  give  their  baggage  checks  to  the 
expressman  ;  so  the  other  three  men  passed  their 
checks  to  Safford,  who  added  his  own  and  handed 
all  four  to  the  conductor  of  the  omnibus. 

When  it  was  time  for  the  baggage  to  come  to 
the  hotel,  there  was  such  a  crowd  of  new  arrivals 
that  the  attendants  could  not  find  it.  The  hotel 
clerk  remarked  on  inquiry,  "  If  I  only  knew  the 
numbers  of  your  checks,  I  would  have  no  difficulty 
in  tracing  your  trunks."  Safford  at  once  told  off 
the  four  numbers,  which  he  had  read  as  he  was 
passing  the  checks  to  the  conductor. 

The  great  fire  practically  put  an  end  to  the 
activity  of  the  Chicago  Observatory  and  forced  its 
director  to  pursue  his  work  in  other  fields.  That 
he  failed  to  attain  that  commanding  position  due 
to  his  genius  is  to  be  ascribed  to  a  cause  preva- 
lent among  us  during  all  the  middle  part  of  the 


70     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

century ;  perhaps  that  from  which  most  brilliant 
intellects  fail  to  reach  eminence :  lack  of  the  power 
of  continuous  work  necessary  to  bring  important 
researches  to  a  completion. 

Another  great  intellect  of  the  office  was  Chaun- 
cey  Wright.  If  Wright  had  systematically  applied 
his  powers,  he  might  have  preceded  or  supplanted 
Herbert  Spencer  as  the  great  exponent  of  the 
theory  of  evolution.  He  had  graduated  at  Har- 
vard in  1853,  and  was  a  profound  student  of 
philosophy  from  that  time  forward,  though  I  am 
not  aware  that  he  was  a  writer.  When  in  1858 
Sir  William  Hamilton's  "  Lectures  on  Metaphy- 
sics "  appeared,  he  took  to  them  with  avidity.  In 
1859  appeared  Darwin's  "  Origin  of  Species,"  and 
a  series  of  meetings  was  held  by  the  American 
Academy,  the  special  order  of  which  was  the  dis- 
cussion of  this  book.  Wright  and  myself,  not  yet 
members,  were  invited  to  be  present.  To  judge  of 
the  interest  it  is  only  necessary  to  remark  that 
Agassiz  and  Gray  were  the  two  leading  disputants, 
the  first  taking  ground  against  Darwin,  the  other 
in  his  favor.  Wright  was  a  Darwinist  from  the 
very  beginning,  explaining  the  theory  in  private 
conversation  from  a  master's  point  of  view,  and  soon 
writing  upon  it  in  the  "  North  American  Keview  " 
and  in  other  publications.  Of  one  of  his  articles 
Darwin  has  been  quoted  as  saying  that  it  was 
the  best  exposition  of  his  theory  that  had  then 
appeared.  After  his  untimely  death  in  1875, 
Wright's  papers  were  collected  and  published  under 


THE  WORLD  OF  SWEETNESS  AND  LIGHT       71 

the  title  of  "  Philosophical  Discussions."  l  Their 
style  is  clear-cut  and  faultless  in  logical  form,  yet 
requiring  such  close  attention  to  every  word  as  to 
be  less  attractive  to  the  general  reader  of  to-day 
than  that  of  Spencer.  In  a  more  leisurely  age, 
when  men  wanted  to  think  profoundly  as  they 
went  along  in  a  book,  and  had  little  to  disturb 
the  current  of  their  thoughts,  it  would  have  com- 
manded wide  attention  among  thinking  men. 

A  singular  peculiarity  which  I  have  sometimes 
noticed  among  men  of  intelligence  is  that  those 
who  are  best  informed  on  the  subject  may  be  most 
reckless  as  regards  the  laws  of  health.  Wright 
did  all  of  his  office  work  in  two  or  three  months 
of  the  year.  During  those  months  he  worked  at 
his  computations  far  into  the  hours  of  the  morn- 
ing, stimulating  his  strength  with  cigars,  and  drop- 
ping his  work  only  to  take  it  up  when  he  had  had 
the  necessary  sleep.  A  strong  constitution  might 
stand  this  for  a  few  years,  as  his  did.  But  the 
ultimate  result  hardly  needs  to  be  told. 

Besides  the  volume  I  have  mentioned,  Wright's 
letters  were  collected  and  printed  after  his  death 
by  the  subscription  of  his  friends.  In  these  his 
philosophic  views  are  from  time  to  time  brought 
out  in  a  light,  easy  way,  much  more  charming  than 
the  style  of  his  elaborate  discussions.  It  was  in 
one  of  his  letters  that  I  first  found  the  appthegm, 
"  Men  are  born  either  Platonists  or  Aristotelians," 
a  happy  drawing  of  the  line  which  separates  the 

i  Henry  Holt  &  Co. :  New  York,  1877. 


72     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

hard-headed  scientific  thinker  of  to-day  from  the 
thinkers  of  all  other  classes. 

William  Ferrell,  a  much  older  man  than  myself, 
entered  the  office  about  the  same  time  as  I  did. 
He  published  papers  on  the  motions  of  fluids  on 
the  earth's  surface  in  the  "  Mathematical  Monthly/' 
and  became  one  of  the  great  authorities  on  dynamic 
meteorology,  including  the  mathematical  theory  of 
winds  and  tides.  He  was,  I  believe,  the  first  to 
publish  a  correct  theory  of  the  retardation  pro- 
duced in  the  rotation  of  the  earth  by  the  action  of 
the  tides,  and  the  consequent  slow  lengthening  of 
the  day. 

James  Edward  Oliver  might  have  been  one  of 
the  great  mathematicians  of  his  time  had  he  not 
been  absolutely  wanting  in  the  power  of  continu- 
ous work.  It  was  scarcely  possible  to  get  even 
his  year's  office  work  out  of  him.  Yet  when  I 
once  wrote  him  a  question  on  certain  mathematical 
forms  which  arise  in  the  theory  of  "  least  squares," 
he  replied  in  a  letter  which,  with  some  develop- 
ments and  change  of  form,  would  have  made  a 
worthy  memoir  in  any  mathematical  journal.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  the  same  thoughts  did  appear 
some  years  after,  in  an  elaborate  paper  by  Profes- 
sor J.  W.  L.  Glaisher,  of  England,  published  by 
the  Koyal  Astronomical  Society. 

Oliver,  who  afterward  became  professor  of  higher 
mathematics  at  Cornell  University,  was  noted  for 
what  I  think  should  be  considered  the  valuable 
quality  of  absent-mindedness.  It  was  said  of  him 


THE  WORLD  OF  SWEETNESS  AND  LIGHT       73 

that  he  was  once  walking  on  the  seashore  with  a 
small  but  valuable  gold  watch  loose  in  his  pocket. 
While  deep  in  thought  he  started  a  kind  of  distrac- 
tion by  picking  up  flat  stones  and  skipping  them 
on  the  water.  Taking  his  watch  from  his  pocket 
he  skipped  it  as  a  stone.  When  I  became  well  ac- 
quainted with  him  I  took  the  liberty  of  asking  him 
as  to  the  correctness  of  this  story.  He  could  not 
positively  say  whether  it  was  true  or  not.  The 
facts  were  simply  that  he  had  the  watch,  that  he 
had  walked  on  the  seashore,  had  skipped  stones, 
missed  the  watch  at  some  subsequent  time,  and 
never  saw  it  again. 

More  definite  was  an  observation  made  on  his 
movements  one  afternoon  by  a  looker-out  from  a 
window  of  the  Nautical  Almanac  Office.  Across 
the  way  the  road  was  bounded  by  no  fence,  simply 
passing  along  the  side  of  an  open  field.  As  Oliver 
got  near  the  office,  his  chin  on  his  breast,  deep  in 
thought,  he  was  seen  gradually  to  deviate  from  the 
sidewalk,  and  direct  his  steps  along  the  field.  He 
continued  on  this  erratic  course  until  he  ran  almost 
against  the  fence  at  the  other  end.  This  awoke 
him  from  his  reverie,  and  he  started  up,  looked 
around,  and  made  his  way  back  to  the  road. 

I  have  spoken  only  of  the  men  who  were  employed 
at  the  office  at  the  time  I  entered.  Previous  to 
my  time  were  several  who  left  to  accept  profes- 
sorships in  various  parts  of  the  country.  Among 
them  were  Professors  Van  Vleck,  of  Middletown, 
and  Hedrick  and  Kerr,  of  North  Carolina.  Not 


74     THE   REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

desiring  to  leave  upon  the  mind  of  the  reader  the 
impression  that  ah1  of  whom  I  have  not  spoken  re- 
mained in  obscurity,  I  will  remark  that  Mr.  Isaac 
Bradford  rose  to  the  position  of  mayor  of  the  city 
of  Cambridge,  and  that  fugitive  pieces  in  prose 
and  poetry  by  Mr.  E.  J.  Loomis  were  collected  in  a 
volume.1 

The  discipline  of  the  public  service  was  less  rigid 
in  the  office  at  that  time  than  at  any  government 
institution  I  ever  heard  of.  In  theory  there  was  an 
understanding  that  each  assistant  was  "  expected  " 
to  be  in  the  office  five  hours  a  day.  The  hours 
might  be  selected  by  himself,  and  they  generally 
extended  from  nine  until  two,  the  latter  being  at 
that  time  the  college  and  family  dinner  hour.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  however,  the  work  was  done  pretty 
much  where  and  when  the  assistant  chose,  all  that 
was  really  necessary  being  to  have  it  done  on  time. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  excellent  opportunities 
offered  by  this  system  were  well  improved  by  those 
who  enjoyed  them  —  improved  in  a  way  that  I 
fear  would  not  be  possible  in  any  other  surround- 
ings. I  took  advantage  of  them  by  enrolling  my- 
self as  a  student  of  mathematics  in  the  Lawrence 
Scientific  School.  On  this  occasion  I  well  remem- 
ber my  pleasant  reception  by  Charles  W.  Eliot, 
tutor  in  mathematics,  and  E.  N.  Horsford,  professor 
of  chemistry,  and,  I  believe,  dean  of  the  school. 
As  a  newcomer  into  the  world  of  light,  it  was 
pleasant  to  feel  the  spirit  with  which  they  welcomed 

1  Wayside  Sketches,  by  E.  J.  Loomis.     Roberts  :  Boston. 


THE  WORLD  OF  SWEETNESS  AND  LIGHT       75 

me.  The  departments  of  chemistry  and  engineer- 
ing were  about  the  only  ones  which,  at  that  time, 
had  any  distinct  organization.  As  a  student  of 
mathematics  it  could  hardly  be  said  that  anything 
was  required  of  me  either  in  the  way  of  attendance 
on  lectures  or  examinations  until  I  came  up  for  the 
degree  of  Bachelor  of  Science.  I  was  supposed, 
however,  to  pursue  my  studies  under  the  direction 
of  Professor  Peirce. 

So  slight  a  connection  with  the  university  does 
not  warrant  me  in  assuming  an  authoritative  posi- 
tion as  an  observer  of  its  men  or  its  workings. 
Yet  there  are  many  features  associated  with  it  which 
I  have  not  seen  in  print,  which  have  probably  dis- 
appeared with  the  progress  of  the  age,  and  to 
which,  therefore,  allusion  may  be  made.  One,  as 
it  presents  itself  to  my  memory,  is  the  great  variety 
and  picturesqueness  of  character  which  the  univer- 
sity then  presented.  I  would  like  to  know  whether 
the  changes  in  men  which  one  fancies  he  sees  dur- 
ing his  passage  from  youth  to  age  are  real,  or  only 
relative  to  his  point  of  view.  If  my  impressions 
are  correct,  our  educational  planing  mill  cuts  down  ' 
all  the  knots  of  genius,  and  reduces  the  best  of  the 
men  who  go  through  it  to  much  the  same  standard. 
Does  not  the  Harvard  professor  of  to-day  always 
dine  in  a  dress  coat  ?  Is  he  not  free  from  every 
eccentricity?  Do  the  students  ever  call  him 
"  Benny  "  or  «  Tobie  "  ?  Is  any  «  Old  Soph  " l  now 

1  Evangelinus  Apostolides  Sophocles,  a  native  Greek  and  a  learned 
professor  of  the  literature  of  his  country. 


76     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

ambulant  on  the  college  green?  Is  not  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  library  a  combination  of  liberal- 
ity and  correctness  ?  Is  such  a  librarian  as  John 
Langdon  Sibley  possible? 

Mr.  Sibley,  under  a  rough  exterior,  was  one  of 
the  best-hearted  and  most  admirable  of  men,  with 
whom  I  ultimately  formed  an  intimate  friendship. 
But  our  first  acquaintance  was  of  a  very  unfavor- 
able kind.  It  came  about  in  this  way  :  not  many 
days  after  being  taken  into  the  Nautical  Almanac 
Office  I  wanted  a  book  from  the  university  library, 
and  asked  a  not  over-bright  old  gentleman  in  the 
office  what  formalities  were  necessary  in  order  to 
borrow  it. 

"  Just  go  over  and  tell  them  you  want  it  for  the 
Nautical  Almanac." 

"  But  they  don't  know  me  at  the  library,  and 
surely  will  not  give  a  book  to  any  stray  caller 
because  he  says  he  wants  it  for  the  Nautical 
Almanac." 

"  You  have  only  to  say  '  Nautical  Almanac  '  and 
you  will  get  the  book." 

I  argued  the  matter  as  stoutly  as  courtesy  ad- 
mitted, but  at  length,  concluding  that  I  was  new  to 
the  rules  and  regulations  of  the  place,  accepted  the 
supposedly  superior  knowledge  of  my  informer  and 
went  over  to  the  library  with  a  due  measure  of 
assurance.  The  first  attendant  whom  I  addressed 
referred  me  to  the  assistant  librarian,  and  he  again 
to  the  librarian.  After  these  formalities,  conducted 
with  impressive  gravity,  my  assurance  wilted  when 


THE  WORLD   OF  SWEETNESS  AND  LIGHT       77 

I  was  ushered  into  the  august  presence  of  the 
chief  librarian. 

As  the  mental  picture  of  the  ensuing  scene  has 
shaped  itself  through  more  than  forty  years  it  shows 
a  personage  of  imposing  presence,  gigantic  features, 
and  forbidding  countenance,  standing  on  a  dais 
behind  a  desk,  expounding  the  law  governing  the 
borrowing  of  books  from  the  library  of  Harvard 
College  to  an  abashed  youth  standing  before  him. 
I  left  without  the  book,  but  with  a  valuable  addition 
to  my  knowledge  of  library  management.  We  both 
remembered  this  interview,  and  exchanged  impres- 
sions about  it  long  years  after. 

"  I  thought  you  the  most  crusty  and  disobliging 
old  man  I  had  ever  seen." 

"  And  I  thought  you  the  most  presumptuous 
youth  that  had  ever  appeared  in  the  library." 

One  of  Mr.  Sibley's  professional  doctrines  was 
that  at  least  one  copy  of  everything  printed  was 
worth  preserving.  I  strove  to  refute  him,  but  long 
failed.  Half  in  derision,  I  offered  the  library  the 
stub  of  my  wash-book.  Instead  of  throwing  it 
into  the  wastebasket  he  kept  it,  with  the  remark 
that  the  wash-book  of  a  nineteenth  century  student 
would  at  some  future  time  be  of  interest  to  the  an- 
tiquarian. In  due  time  I  received  a  finely  engraved 
acknowledgment  of  the  gift.  But  I  forced  him 
from  his  position  at  last.  He  had  to  admit  that 
copies  of  the  theatre  posters  need  not  all  be  pre- 
served. It  would  suffice  to  keep  a  few  specimens. 

Professor  Peirce  was  much  more  than  a  mathema- 


78     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

tician.  Like  many  men  of  the  time,  he  was  a  warm 
lover  and  a  cordial  hater.  It  could  not  always  be 
guessed  which  side  of  a  disputed  question  he  would 
take  ;  but  one  might  be  fairly  sure  that  he  would 
be  at  one  extreme  or  the  other.  As  a  speaker  and 
lecturer  he  was  very  pleasing,  neither  impressive 
nor  eloquent,  and  yet  interesting  from  his  earnest- 
ness and  vivacity.  For  this  reason  it  is  said  that 
he  was  once  chosen  to  enforce  the  views  of  the 
university  professors  at  a  town  meeting,  where 
some  subject  of  interest  to  them  was  coming  up 
for  discussion.  Several  of  the  professors  attended 
the  meeting,  and  Peirce  made  his  speech.  Then  a 
townsman  rose  and  took  the  opposite  side,  express- 
ing the  hope  that  the  meeting  would  not  allow  it- 
self to  be  dictated  to  by  these  nabobs  of  Harvard 
College.  When  he  sat  down,  Peirce  remained  in 
placid  silence,  making  no  reply.  When  the  meet- 
ing broke  up,  some  one  asked  Peirce  why  he  had 
not  replied  to  the  man. 

"  Why  !  did  you  not  hear  what  he  called  us  ?  He 
said  we  were  nabobs !  I  so  enjoyed  sitting  up 
there  and  seeing  all  that  crowd  look  up  to  me  as 
a  nabob  that  I  could  not  say  one  word  against  the 
fellow." 

The  first  of  the  leading  astronomers  whose  ac- 
quaintance I  made  was  Dr.  Benjamin  Apthorp 
Gould.  Knowing  his  eminence,  I  was  quite  sur- 
prised by  his  youthful  vivacity.  His  history,  had 
I  time  to  recount  it,  might  be  made  to  serve  well 
the  purpose  of  a  grave  lesson  upon  the  conditions 


THE  WORLD  OF  SWEETNESS  AND  LIGHT       79 

required,  even  by  the  educated  public,  of  a  scien- 
tific investigator,  capable  of  doing  the  highest  and 
best  work  in  his  branch.  The  soul  of  generosity 
and  the  pink  of  honor,  ever  ready  to  lend  a  hand 
to  a  struggling  youth  whom  he  found  deserving  of 
help,  enthusiastically  devoted  to  his  favorite  science, 
pursuing  it  in  the  most  exalted  spirit,  animated  by 
not  a  single  mean  motive,  it  might  have  been  sup- 
posed that  all  the  facilities  the  world  could  offer 
would  have  been  open  to  him  in  his  career.  If 
such  was  not  the  case  to  the  extent  one  might  have 
wished,  I  do  not  mean  to  intimate  that  his  life  can 
be  regarded  as  a  failure.  In  whatever  respect  the 
results  may  have  fallen  off  from  his  high  ideal,  it 
is  more  to  be  regretted  on  the  score  of  science  than 
on  his  own. 

Scorning  pretense  and  charlatanry  of  all  kinds, 
believing  that  only  the  best  were  to  be  encouraged, 
he  was  far  from  being  a  man  of  the  people.  Only 
a  select  few  enjoyed  his  favor,  but  these  few  well 
deserved  it.  That  no  others  would  have  deserved 
it  I  should  be  far  from  intimating.  The  undis- 
guised way  in  which  he  expressed  his  sentiments 
for  any  one,  no  matter  how  influential,  who  did 
not  come  up  to  the  high  standard  he  set,  was  not 
adapted  to  secure  the  favor  even  of  the  most  edu- 
cated community.  Of  worldly  wisdom  in  this  mat- 
ter he  seemed,  at  least  in  his  early  days,  to  know 
nothing. 

He  graduated  at  Harvard  in  1845,  in  one  of 
the  very  distinguished  classes.  Being  fond  of  as- 


80     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

tronomy,  he  was  struck  with  the  backward  condi- 
tion of  that  science  in  our  country.  He  resolved 
to  devote  his  life  to  building  up  the  science  in 
America.  He  went  to  Germany,  thien  the  only 
country  in  which  astronomy  was  pursued  in  its 
most  advanced  form,  studied  under  Gauss  and 
Argelander,  and  took  his  degree  at  Gottingen  in 
1848.  Soon  after  his  return  he  founded  the  "  As- 
tronomical Journal/'  and  also  took  a  position  as 
Chief  of  the  Longitude  Department  in  the  Coast 
Survey. 

The  great  misfortune  of  his  life,  and  temporarily 
at  least,  a  severe  blow  to  American  astronomy, 
were  associated  with  his  directorship  of  the  Dud- 
ley Observatory  at  Albany.  This  institution  was 
founded  by  the  munificence  of  a  wealthy  widow  of 
Albany.  The  men  to  whom  she  intrusted  the 
administration  of  her  gift  were  among  the  most 
prominent  and  highly  respected  citizens  of  the 
place.  The  trustees  went  wisely  to  work.  They 
began  by  forming  an  advisory  scientific  council, 
consisting  of  Bache,  Henry,  and  Peirce.  Under 
the  direction  of  this  council  the  observatory  was 
built  and  equipped  with  instruments.  When  ready 
for  active  work  in  1857,  Gould  moved  thither  and 
took  personal  charge.  Very  soon  rumors  of  dissen- 
sion were  heard.  The  affair  gradually  grew  into  a 
contest  between  the  director  and  the  trustees,  ex- 
ceeding in  bitterness  any  I  have  ever  known  in  the 
world  of  learning  or  even  of  politics.  It  doubtless 
had  its  origin  in  very  small  beginnings.  The  policy 


THE  WORLD  OF  SWEETNESS  AND  LIGHT       81 

of  the  director  recognized  no  end  but  scientific  effi- 
ciency. The  trustees,  as  the  responsible  adminis- 
trators of  the  trust,  felt  that  they  had  certain  rights 
in  the  matter,  especially  that  of  introducing  visitors 
to  inspect  the  institution  and  look  through  the 
telescope.  How  fatal  the  granting  of  such  cour- 
tesies is  to  continuous  work  with  an  instrument 
only  astronomers  know ;  and  one  of  the  most  em- 
barrassing difficulties  the  director  of  such  an  institu- 
tion meets  with  is  to  effect  a  prudent  compromise 
between  the  scientific  efficiency  of  his  institution 
and  the  wishes  of  the  public.  But  Gould  knew  no 
such  word  as  compromise.  It  was  humiliating  to 
one  in  the  position  of  a  trustee  to  send  some  visitor 
with  a  permit  to  see  the  observatory,  and  have  the 
visitor  return  with  the  report  that  he  had  not  been 
received  with  the  most  distinguished  courtesy,  and, 
perhaps,  had  not  seen  the  director  at  all,  but  had 
only  been  informed  by  an  assistant  of  the  rules  of 
the  place  and  the  impossibility  of  securing  admis- 
sion. 

This  spark  was  enough  to  kindle  a  fire.  When 
the  fire  gathered  strength,  the  director,  instead  of 
yielding,  called  on  the  scientific  council  for  aid.  It 
is  quite  likely  that,  had  these  wise  and  prudent  men 
been  consulted  at  each  step,  and  their  advice  been 
followed,  he  would  have  emphasized  his  protest 
by  resigning.  But  before  they  were  called  in, 
the  affair  had  gone  so  far  that,  believing  the  di- 
rector to  be  technically  right  in  the  ground  he 
had  taken  and  the  work  he  had  done,  the  council 


82     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

felt  bound  to  defend  him.  The  result  was  a  war 
in  which  the  shots  were  pamphlets  containing 
charges,  defenses,  and  rejoinders.  The  animosity 
excited  may  be  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  attacks 
were  not  confined  to  Gould  and  his  administration, 
but  extended  to  every  institution  with  which  he  and 
the  president  of  the  council  were  supposed  to  be 
connected.  Bache's  administration  of  the  Coast 
Survey  was  held  up  to  scorn  and  ridicule.  It  was 
supposed  that  Gould,  as  a  Cambridge  astronomer, 
was,  as  a  matter  of  course,  connected  with  the 
Nautical  Almanac  Office,  and  paid  a  high  salary. 
This  being  assumed,  the  office  was  included  in  the 
scope  of  attack,  and  with  such  success  that  the 
item  for  its  support  for  the  year  1859,  on  motion 
of  Mr.  Dawes,  was  stricken  out  of  the  naval  bill. 
How  far  the  fire  spread  may  be  judged  by  the 
fact  that  a  whole  edition  of  the  "  Astronomical 
Journal,"  supposed  to  have  some  mention  of  the 
affair  in  the  same  cover,  was  duly  sent  off  from 
the  observatory,  but  never  reached  its  destination 
through  the  mails.  Gould  knew  nothing  of  this 
fact  until,  some  weeks  later,  I  expressed  my  sur- 
prise to  him  at  not  receiving  No.  121.  How  or 
by  whom  it  was  intercepted,  I  do  not  know  that  he 
ever  seriously  attempted  to  inquire.  The  outcome 
of  the  matter  was  that  the  trustees  asserted  their 
right  by  taking  forcible  possession  of  the  obser- 
vatory. 

During  my  first  year  at  Cambridge  I  made  the 
acquaintance  of  a  senior  in  the  college  whose  un- 


THE  WORLD  OF  SWEETNESS  AND  LIGHT       83 

timely  death  seven  years  later  I  have  never  ceased 
to  deplore.  This  was  William  P.  G.  Bartlett,  son 
of  a  highly  esteemed  Boston  physician,  Dr.  George 
Bartlett.  The  latter  was  a  brother  of  Sidney  Bart- 
lett, long  the  leader  of  the  Boston  bar.  Bartlett 
was  my  junior  in  years,  but  his  nature  and  the  sur- 
rounding circumstances  were  such  that  he  exercised 
a  powerful  influence  upon  me.  His  virile  and  ag- 
gressive honesty  could  not  be  exceeded.  His  mathe- 
matical abilities  were  of  a  high  order,  and  he  had  no 
ambition  except  to  become  a  mathematician.  Had 
he  entered  public  life  at  Washington,  and  any  one 
had  told  me  that  he  was  guilty  of  a  dishonest  act, 
I  should  have  replied,  "  You  might  as  well  tell  me 
that  he  picked  up  the  Capitol  last  night  and  car- 
ried it  off  on  his  back."  The  fact  that  one  could 
say  so  much  of  any  man,  I  have  always  looked  upon 
as  illustrating  one  of  the  greatest  advantages  of 
having  a  youth  go  through  college.  The  really 
important  results  I  should  look  for  are  not  culture 
or  training  alone,  but  include  the  acquaintance  of 
a  body  of  men,  many  of  whom  are  to  take  leading 
positions  in  the  world,  of  a  completeness  and  inti- 
macy that  can  never  be  acquired  under  other  cir- 
cumstances. The  student  sees  his  fellow  students 
through  and  through  as  he  can  never  see  through 
a  man  in  future  years. 

It  was,  and  I  suppose  still  is,  the  custom  for  the 
members  of  a  graduating  class  at  Harvard  to  add 
to  their  class  biographies  a  motto  expressing  their 
aspirations  or  views  of  life.  Bartlett's  was, "  I  love 


84     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

mathematics  and  hate  humbug."  What  the  latter 
clause  would  have  led  to  in  his  case,  had  he  gone 
out  into  the  world,  one  can  hardly  guess. 

"  I  have  had  a  long  talk  with  my  Uncle  Sidney," 
he  said  to  me  one  day.  "  He  wants  me  to  study 
law,  maintaining  that  the  wealth  one  can  thereby  ac- 
quire, and  the  prominence  he  may  assume,  will  give 
him  a  higher  position  in  society  and  public  esteem 
than  mere  learning  ever  can.  But  I  told  him  that 
if  I  could  stand  high  in  the  esteem  of  twenty  such 
men  as  Cayley,  Sylvester,  and  Peirce,  I  cared  no- 
thing to  be  prominent  in  the  eyes  of  the  rest  of 
the  world."  Such  an  expression  from  an  eminent 
member  of  the  Boston  bar,  himself  a  Harvard 
graduate,  was  the  first  striking  evI3ence  I  met  witfiA 
that  my  views  of  the  exalted  nature  of  astronomical 
investigation  were  not  shared  by  society  at  large. 
One  of  the  greatest  advantages  I  enjoyed  through 
Bartlett  was  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  a  cul- 
tured and  refined  Boston  family. 

In  1858  Mr.  Runkle  founded  the  "  Mathemati- 
cal Monthly,"  having  secured,  in  advance,  the  co- 
operation of  the  leading  professors  of  the  subject 
in  the  country.  The  journal  was  continued,  under 
many  difficulties,  for  three  years.  As  a  vehicle  for 
publishing  researches  in  advanced  mathematics,  it 
could  not  be  of  a  high  order,  owing  to  the  neces- 
sity of  a  subscription  list.  Its  design  was  therefore 
to  interest  students  and  professors  in  the  subject, 
and  thus  prepare  the  way  for  the  future  growth 
of  mathematical  study  among  us.  Its  principal 


THE  WORLD  OF  SWEETNESS  AND  LIGHT       85 

feature  was  the  offer  of  prize  problems  to  students 
as  well  as  prizes  for  essays  on  mathematical  sub- 
jects. The  first  to  win  a  prize  for  an  essay  was 
George  W.  Hill,  a  graduate  of  Rutgers  just  out  of 
college,  who  presented  a  memoir  in  which  the  hand 
of  the  future  master  was  evident  throughout. 

In  the  general  conduct  of  the  journal  Bartlett 
and  myself,  though  not  ostensibly  associate  editors, 
were  at  least  assistants.  Simple  though  the  affair 
was,  some  of  our  experiences  were  of  an  interest- 
ing and,  perhaps,  instructive  nature. 

Soon  after  the  first  number  appeared,  a  con- 
tribution was  offered  by  a  professor  in  a  distant 
State.  An  important  part  of  the  article  was  found 
to  be  copied  bodily  from  Walton's  "  Problems  in 
Mechanics,"  an  English  book  which,  it  might  be 
supposed,  was  not  much  known  in  this  country. 
Runkle  did  not  want  to  run  the  risk  of  injuring 
his  subscription  list  by  offending  one  occupying  an 
influential  position  if  he  could  help  it  with  honor 
to  the  journal.  Of  course  it  was  not  a  question 
of  publishing  the  paper,  but  only  of  letting  the 
author  know  why  he  did  not  do  so,  —  "  letting  him 
down  easy." 

Bartlett's  advice  was  characteristic.  "  Just  write 
to  the  fellow  that  we  don't  publish  stolen  articles. 
That 's  all  you  need  say." 

I  suggested  that  we  might  inflict  on  him  all 
necessary  humiliation  by  letting  him  know  in  the 
gentlest  manner  possible  that  we  saw  the  fraud. 
Of  course  Runkle  preferred  this  course,  and  wrote 


86     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

him,  calling  his  attention  to  a  similarity  between 
his  treatment  of  the  subject  and  that  of  Walton, 
which  materially  detracted  from  the  novelty  of 
the  former.  I  think  it  was  suggested  that  he  get 
the  book,  if  possible,  and  assure  himself  on  the 
subject. 

A  vigorous  answer  came  by  return  of  mail.  He 
was  a  possessor  of  Walton's  book,  knew  all  about 
the  similar  treatment  of  the  subject  by  Walton,  and 
did  not  see  that  that  should  be  any  bar  to  the 
publication  of  the  article.  I  think  it  was  he  who 
wound  up  his  letter  with  the  statement  that,  while 
he  admitted  the  right  of  the  editor  to  publish  what 
he  pleased,  he,  the  writer,  was  too  busy  to  spend 
his  time  in  writing  rejected  articles. 

An  eminent  would-be  contributor  was  a  promi- 
nent Pennsylvania  politician,  who  had  read  a  long 
and  elaborate  article,  before  some  teachers'  asso- 
ciation, on  an  arithmetical  problem  about  oxen  eat- 
ing grass,  the  power  to  solve  which  was  taken  as 
the  highest  mark  of  mathematical  ability,  among 
school  teachers  during  the  first  half  of  the  century. 
The  association  referred  the  paper  to  the  editor  of 
the  "  Mathematical  Monthly,"  by  whom  it  was,  I 
believe,  consigned  to  the  wastebasket.  The  result 
was  a  good  deal  of  correspondence,  such  a  pro- 
ceeding being  rather  humiliating  to  a  man  of  emi- 
nence who  had  addressed  so  distinguished  an  assem- 
bly. The  outcome  of  the  matter  was  that  the 
paper,  which  was  much  more  in  the  nature  of  a 
legal  document  than  of  a  mathematical  investiga- 


THE  WORLD  OF  SWEETNESS  AND  LIGHT       87 

tion,  was  greatly  reduced  in  length  by  its  author, 
and  then  still  further  shorn  by  the  editor,  until  it 
would  fill  only  two  or  three  pages  of  the  journal ; 
thus  reduced,  it  was  published. 

The  time  was  not  yet  ripe  for  the  growth  of 
mathematical  science  among  us,  and  any  develop- 
ment that  might  have  taken  place  in  that  direction 
was  rudely  stopped  by  the  civil  war.  Perhaps 
this  may  account  for  the  curious  fact  that,  so  far 
as  I  have  ever  remarked,  none  of  the  student  con- 
tributors to  the  journal,  Hill  excepted,  has  made 
himself  known  as  a  mathematical  investigator. 
Not  only  the  state  of  mathematical  learning,  but 
the  conditions  of  success  at  that  time  in  a  mathe- 
matical text-book,  are  strikingly  illustrated  by  one 
of  our  experiences. 

One  of  the  leading  publishing  houses  of  edu- 
cational text-books  in  the  country  issued  a  very 
complete  and  advanced  series,  from  the  pen  of 
a  former  teacher  of  the  subject.  They  were  be- 
ing extensively  introduced,  and  were  sent  to  the 
"  Mathematical  Monthly  "  for  review.  They  were 
distinguished  by  quite  apt  illustrations,  well  fitted, 
perhaps,  to  start  the  poorly  equipped  student  in 
the  lower  branches  of  the  work,  but  the  advanced 
works,  at  least,  were  simply  ridiculous.  A  notice 
appeared  in  which  the  character  of  the  books  was 
pointed  out.  The  evidence  of  the  worthlessness  of 
the  entire  series  was  so  strong  that  the  publishers 
had  it  entirely  rewritten  by  more  competent  au- 
thors. Now  came  the  oddest  part  of  the  whole 


88     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

affair.  The  new  series  was  issued  under  the  name 
of  the  same  author  as  the  old  one,  just  as  if  the 
acknowledgment  of  his  total  failure  did  not  detract 
from  the  value  of  his  name  as  an  author. 

In  1860  a  total  eclipse  of  the  sun  was  visible  in 
British  America.  The  shadow  of  the  moon,  start- 
ing from  near  Vancouver's  Island,  crossed  the 
continent  in  a  northeast  direction,  passed  through 
the  central  part  of  the  Hudson  Bay  region,  crossed 
Hudson  Bay  itself  and  Greenland,  then  inclining 
southward,  swept  over  the  Atlantic  to  Spain.  As 
this  was  the  first  eclipse  of  the  kind  which  had  re- 
cently been  visible,  much  interest  was  taken  in  its 
observation.  On  the  part  of  the  Nautical  Alma- 
nac Office,  I  computed  the  path  of  the  shadow  and 
the  times  of  crossing  certain  points  in  it.  The  re- 
sults were  laid  down  on  a  map  which  was  published 
by  the  office.  One  party,  fitted  out  in  connection 
with  the  American  Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Science,  was  sent  to  Greenland.  Admiral 
Davis  desired  to  send  another,  on  behalf  of  his  own 
office,  into  the  central  regions  of  the  continent.  As 
members  of  this  party  Mr.  Ferrel  and  myself  were 
chosen.  At  the  request  of  Professor  Agassiz  one 
of  the  assistants  in  the  Museum  of  Comparative 
Zoology,  Mr.  Samuel  H.  Scudder,  accompanied  us. 
More  than  twenty  years  later  Mr.  Scudder  pub- 
lished a  little  book  describing  some  of  our  adven- 
tures, which  was  illustrated  with  sketches  showing 
the  experiences  of  a  party  in  the  wild  West  at  that 
time. 


THE  WORLD  OF  SWEETNESS  AND  LIGHT       89 

Our  course  lay  from  St.  Paul  across  Minnesota 
to  the  Red  River  of  the  North,  thence  north  to 
Fort  Garry  near  the  southern  end  of  Lake  Winni- 
peg, then  over  the  lake  and  some  distance  up 
the  Saskatchewan  River.  At  St.  Paul  we  paid  our 
respects  to  Governor  Ramsey,  afterward  Senator 
from  Minnesota  and  Secretary  of  War.  We  were 
much  surprised  at  the  extraordinary  deference  paid 
by  the  community  to  a  Mr.  Burbank,  a  leading 
citizen  of  the  town,  and  owner  of  the  stages  which 
we  had  to  engage  for  our  journey  across  the 
country.  He  seemed  to  be  a  man  whom  every  one 
was  afraid  to  offend.  Even  the  local  newspapers 
were  careful  what  they  printed  about  matters  in 
which  he  was  interested. 

The  two  or  three  days  which  we  passed  in  get- 
ting things  ready  to  start  were  rather  dull.  The 
morning  after  our  arrival  I  saw,  during  a  morning 
walk,  on  a  hill  just  outside  the  town,  a  large  new 
building,  on  which  the  word  "  Athenaeum "  was 
conspicuously  shown.  The  Boston  Athenaeum 
had  a  very  fine  library  ;  is  it  not  possible  that  this 
may  have  a  beginning  of  something  of  the  same 
sort  ?  Animated  by  this  hope,  I  went  up  the  hill 
and  entered  the  building,  which  seemed  to  be 
entirely  vacant.  The  first  words  that  met  my 
eyes  were  "  Bar  Room  "  painted  over  a  door.  It 
was  simply  a  theatre,  and  I  left  it  much  disap- 
pointed. 

Here  we  were  joined  by  a  young  Methodist 
clergyman,  —  Edward  Eggleston,  —  and  the  four 


90     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

of  us,  with  our  instruments  and  appliances,  set  out 
on  our  journey  of  five  days  over  the  plains.  On 
the  first  day  we  followed  partly  the  line  of  a  pro^ 
jected  railway,  of  which  the  embankments  had 
been  completed,  but  on  which  work  had,  for  some 
reason,  been  stopped  to  await  a  more  prosperous 
season.  Here  was  our  first  experience  of  towns  on 
paper.  From  the  tone  in  which  the  drivers  talked 
of  the  places  where  we  were  to  stop  over  night  one 
might  have  supposed  that  villages,  if  not  cities, 
were  plentiful  along  our  track.  One  example  of 
a  town  at  that  time  will  be  enough.  The  princi- 
pal place  on  our  route,  judging  from  the  talk,  was 
Breckenridge.  We  would  reach  it  at  the  end  of 
the  fourth  day,  where  we  anticipated  a  pleasant 
change  after  camping  out  in  our  tent  for  three 
nights.  It  was  after  dark  before  we  arrived,  and 
we  looked  eagerly  for  signs  of  the  town  we  were 
approaching. 

The  team  at  length  stopped  in  front  of  an  ob- 
ject which,  on  careful  examination  in  the  darkness, 
appeared  to  be  the  most  primitive  structure  imagi- 
nable. It  had  no  foundations,  and  if  it  had  a  wall 
at  all,  it  was  not  more  than  two  or  three  feet  in 
height.  Imagine  the  roof  taken  off  a  house  forty 
feet  long  and  twenty  feet  wide  and  laid  down  on 
the  ground,  and  you  have  the  hotel  and  only  build- 
ing, unless  perhaps  a  stable,  in  Breckenridge  at 
that  time.  The  entrance  was  at  one  end.  Going 
in,  a  chimney  was  seen  in  the  middle  of  the  build- 
ing. The  floor  was  little  more  than  the  bare 


THE  WORLD  OF  SWEETNESS  AND  LIGHT       91 

ground.  On  each  side  of  the  door,  by  the  flicker- 
ing light  of  a  fire,  we  saw  what  looked  like  two 
immense  boxes.  A  second  glance  showed  that 
these  boxes  seemed  to  be  filled  with  human  heads 
and  legs.  They  were,  in  fact,  the  beds  of  the  in- 
habitants of  Breckenridge.  Beds  for  the  arriving 
travelers,  if  they  existed  at  all,  which  I  do  not 
distinctly  remember,  were  in  the  back  of  the  house. 
I  think  the  other  members  of  the  party  occupied 
that  portion.  I  simply  spread  my  blanket  out  on 
the  hearth  in  front  of  the  fire,  wrapped  up,  and 
slept  as  soundly  as  if  the  bed  was  the  softest  of 
a  regal  palace. 

At  Fort  Garry  we  were  received  by  Governor 
McTavish,  with  whom  Captain  Davis  had  had  some 
correspondence  on  the  subject  of  our  expedition, 
and  who  gave  us  letters  to  the  "  factors  "  of  the 
Hudson  Bay  Company  scattered  along  our  route. 
We  found  that  the  rest  of  our  journey  would  have 
to  be  made  in  a  birch  bark  canoe.  One  of  the 
finest  craft  of  this  class  was  loaned  us  by  the  gov- 
ernor. It  had  been,  at  some  former  time,  the  spe- 
cial yacht  of  himself  or  some  visiting  notable.  It 
was  manned  by  eight  half-breeds,  men  whose  phy- 
sical endurance  I  have  never  seen  equaled. 

It  took  three  or  four  days  to  get  everything 
ready,  and  this  interval  was,  of  course,  utilized  by 
Scudder  in  making  his  collections.  He  let  the 
fishermen  of  the  region  know  that  he  wanted  spe- 
cimens of  every  kind  of  fish  that  could  be  found 
in  the  lake.  A  very  small  reward  stirred  them  into 


92     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

activity,  and,  in  due  time,  the  fish  were  brought  to 
the  naturalist,  —  but  lo  !  all  nicely  dressed  and  fit 
for  cooking.  They  were  much  surprised  when  told 
that  all  their  pains  in  dressing  their  catch  had 
spoiled  it  for  the  purposes  of  the  visiting  natural- 
ist, who  wanted  everything  just  as  it  was  taken 
from  the  water. 

Slow  indeed  was  progress  through  the  lake.  A 
canoe  can  be  paddled  only  in  almost  smooth  water, 
and  we  were  frequently  stormbound  on  some  des- 
olate island  or  point  of  land  for  two  or  three  days 
at  a  time.  When,  after  many  adventures,  some  of 
which  looked  like  hairbreadth  escapes,  we  reached 
the  Saskatchewan  River,  the  eclipse  was  only  three 
or  four  days  ahead,  and  it  became  doubtful  whether 
we  should  reach  our  station  in  time  for  the  obser- 
vation. It  was  to  come  off  on  the  morning  of  July 
18,  and,  by  dint  of  paddling  for  twenty-four  hours 
at  a  stretch,  our  men  brought  us  to  the  place  on 
the  evening  before. 

Now  a  new  difficulty  occurred.  In  the  wet  sea- 
son the  Saskatchewan  inundates  the  low  flat  region 
through  which  it  flows,  much  like  the  Nile.  The 
country  was  practically  under  water.  We  found 
the  most  elevated  spot  we  could,  took  out  our 
instruments,  mounted  them  on  boxes  or  anything 
else  in  the  shallow  puddles  of  water,  and  slept  in 
the  canoe.  Next  morning  the  weather  was  hope- 
lessly cloudy.  We  saw  the  darkness  of  the  eclipse 
and  nothing  more. 

Astronomers  are  greatly  disappointed  when,  hav- 


THE  WORLD  OF  SWEETNESS  AND  LIGHT       93 

ing  traveled  halfway  around  the  world  to  see  an 
eclipse,  clouds  prevent  a  sight  of  it ;  and  yet  a 
sense  of  relief  accompanies  the  disappointment. 
You  are  not  responsible  for  the  mishap  ;  perhaps 
something  would  have  broken  down  when  you  were 
making  jxmr_observations,  so  that  they  would  have 
failed  in  the  best  of  weather ;  but  now  you  are  re- 
lieved from  all  responsibility.  It  was  much  easier 
to  go  back  and  tell  of  the  clouds  than  it  would 
have  been  to  say  that  the  telescope  got  disarranged 
at  the  critical  moment  so  that  the  observations 
failed. 

On  our  return  across  Minnesota  we  had  an  ex- 
perience which  I  have  always  remembered  as  illus- 
trative of  the  fallacy  of  all  human  testimony  about 
ghosts,  rappings,  and  other  phenomena  of  that 
character.  We  spent  two  nights  and  a  day  at  Fort 
Snelling.  Some  of  the  officers  were  greatly  sur- 
prised by  a  celestial  phenomenon  of  a  very  ex- 
traordinary character  which  had  been  observed  for 
several  nights  past.  A  star  had  been  seen,  night 
after  night,  rising  in  the  east  as  usual,  and  starting 
on  its  course  toward  the  south.  But  instead  of 
continuing  that  course  across  the  meridian,  as  stars 
invariably  had  done  from  the  remotest  antiquity,  it 
took  a  turn  toward  the  north,  sunk  toward  the 
horizon,  and  finally  set  near  the  north  point  of  the 
horizon.  Of  course  an  explanation  was  wanted. 

My  assurance  that  there  must  be  some  mistake 
in  the  observation  could  not  be  accepted,  because 
this  erratic  course  of  the  heavenly  body  had  been 


94     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

seen  by  all  of  them  so  plainly  that  no  doubt  could 
exist  on  the  subject.  The  men  who  saw  it  were 
not  of  the  ordinary  untrained  kind,  but  graduates 
of  West  Point,  who,  if  any  one,  ought  to  be  free 
from  optical  deceptions.  I  was  confidently  invited 
to  look  out  that  night  and  see  for  myself.  We  all 
watched  with  the  greatest  interest. 

In  due  time  the  planet  Mars  was  seen  in  the  east 
making  its  way  toward  the  south.  "  There  it  is  !  " 
was  the  exclamation. 

"  Yes,  there  it  is,"  said  I.  "  Now  that  planet 
is  going  to  keep  right  on  its  course  toward  the 
south." 

"  No,  it  is  not,"  said  they;  "  you  will  see  it  turn 
around  and  go  down  towards  the  north." 

Hour  after  hour  passed,  and  as  the  planet  went 
on  its  regular  course,  the  other  watchers  began  to 
get  a  little  nervous.  It  showed  no  signs  of  deviat- 
ing from  its  course.  We  went  out  from  time  to 
time  to  look  at  the  sky. 

"  There  it  is,"  said  one  of  the  observers  at  length, 
pointing  to  Capella,  which  was  now  just  rising  a 
little  to  the  east  of  north ;  "  there  is  the  star  set- 
ting." 

"  No,  it  is  n't,"  said  I;  "  there  is  the  star  we  have 
been  looking  at,  now  quite  inconspicuous  near  the 
meridian,  and  that  star  which  you  think  is  setting 
is  really  rising  and  will  soon  be  higher  up." 

A  very  little  additional  watching  showed  that  no 
deviation  of  the  general  laws  of  Nature  had  occurred, 
but  that  the  observers  of  previous  nights  had 


THE  WORLD  OF  SWEETNESS  AND  LIGHT       95 

jumped  at  the  conclusion  that  two  objects,  widely 
apart  in  the  heavens,  were  the  same. 

I  passed  more  than  four  years  in  such  life,  sur- 
roundings, and  activities  as  I  have  described.  In 
1858  I  received  the  degree  of  D.  S.  from  the  Law- 
rence Scientific  School,  and  thereafter  remained  on 
the  rolls  of  the  university  as  a  resident  graduate. 
Life  in  the  new  atmosphere  was  in  such  pleasant 
and  striking  contrast  to  that  of  my  former  world 
that  I  intensely  enjoyed  it.  I  had  no  very  well 
marked  object  in  view  beyond  continuing  studies 
and  researches  in  mathematical  astronomy.  Not 
long  after  my  arrival  in  Cambridge  some  one,  in 
speaking  of  Professor  Peirce,  remarked  to  me  that 
he  had  a  European  reputation  as  a  mathematician. 
It  seemed  to  me  that  this  was  one  of  the  most 
exalted  positions  that  a  man  could  attain,  and  I 
intensely  longed  for  it.  Yet  there  was  no  hurry. 
Reputation  would  come  to  him  who  deserved  it  by 
his  works ;  works  of  the  first  class  were  the  result 
of  careful  thought  and  study,  and  not  of  hurry. 
A  suggestion  had  been  made  to  me  looking  toward 
a  professorship  in  some  Western  college,  but  after 
due  consideration,  I  declined  to  consider  the  mat- 
ter. Yet  the  necessity  of  being  on  the  alert  for 
some  opening  must  have  seemed  quite  strong,  be- 
cause in  1860  I  became  a  serious  candidate  for 
the  professorship  of  physics  in  the  newly  founded 
Washington  University  at  St.  Louis.  I  was  invited 
to  visit  the  university,  and  did  so  on  my  way  to 
observe  the  eclipse  of  1860.  My  competitor  was 


96     THE  REMINISCENCES   OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

lieutenant  J.  M.  Schofield  of  the  United  States 
Army,  then  an  instructor  at  West  Point.  It  will 
not  surprise  the  reader  to  know  that  the  man  who 
was  afterward  to  command  the  army  of  the  United 
States  received  the  preference,  so  I  patiently  waited 
more  than  another  year. 


IV 

LIFE    AND    WORK    AT   AN    OBSERVATORY 

IN  August,  1861,  while  I  was  passing  my  vacation 
on  Cape  Ann,  I  received  a  letter  from  Dr.  Gould, 
then  in  Washington,  informing  me  that  a  vacancy 
was  to  be  filled  in  the  corps  of  professors  of  mathe- 
matics attached  to  the  Naval  Observatory,  and  sug- 
gesting that  I  might  like  the  place.  I  was  at  first 
indisposed  to  consider  the  proposition.  Cambridge 
was  to  me  the  focus  of  the  science  and  learning  of 
our  country.  I  feared  that,  so  far  as  the  world  of 
learning  was  concerned,  I  should  be  burying  myself 
by  moving  to  Washington.  The  drudgery  of  night 
work  at  the  observatory  would  also  interfere  with 
carrying  on  any  regular  investigation.  But,  on 
second  thought,  having  nothing  in  view  at  the 
time,  and  the  position  being  one  from  which  I  could 
escape  should  it  prove  uncongenial,  I  decided  to 
try,  and  indited  the  following  letter :  — 

NAUTICAL  ALMANAC  OFFICE, 
CAMBRIDGE,  MASS.,  August  22,  1861. 

SIK,  —  I  have  the  honor  to  apply  to  you  for  my  ap- 
pointment to  the  office  of  Professor  of  Mathematics  in 
the  United  States  Navy. 

I  would  respectfully  refer  you  to  Commander  Charles 


98     THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

Henry  Davis,  U.  S.  N.,  Professor  Benjamin  Peirce,  of 
Harvard  University,  Dr.  Benjamin  A.  Gould,  of  Cam- 
bridge, and  Professor  Joseph  Henry,  Secretary  of  the 
Smithsonian  Institution,  for  any  information  respecting 
me  which  will  enable  you  to  judge  of  the  propriety  of 
my  appointment. 

With  high  respect, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

SIMON  NEWCOMB, 

Assistant,  Nautical  Almanac. 
HON.  GIDEON  WELLES, 

Secretary  of  the  Navy, 

Washington,  D.  C. 

I  also  wrote  to  Captain  Davis,  who  was  then  on 
duty  in  the  Navy  Department,  telling  him  what  I 
had  done,  but  made  no  further  effort.  Great  was 
my  surprise  when,  a  month  later,  I  found  in  the 
post-office,  without  the  slightest  premonition,  a  very 
large  official  envelope,  containing  my  commission 
duly  signed  by  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the 
United  States.  The  confidence  in  the  valor,  abili- 
ties, etc.,  of  the  appointee,  expressed  in  the  com- 
mission, was  very  assuring.  Accompanying  it  was 
a  letter  from  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  direct- 
ing me  to  report  to  the  Bureau  of  Ordnance  and 
Hydrography,  in  Washington,  for  such  duty  as  it 
might  assign  me.  I  arrived  on  October  6,  and  im- 
mediately called  on  Professor  J.  S.  Hubbard,  who 
was  the  leading  astronomer  of  the  observatory. 
On  the  day  following  I  reported  as  directed,  and 
was  sent  to  Captain  Gilliss,  the  recently  appointed 
Superintendent  of  the  Naval  Observatory,  before 


LIFE  AND  WORK  AT  AN  OBSERVATORY        99 

whom  I  stood  with  much  trepidation.  In  reply  to 
his  questions  I  had  to  confess  my  entire  inexpe- 
rience in  observatory  work  or  the  making  of  astro- 
nomical observations.  A  coast  survey  observer  had 
once  let  me  look  through  his  transit  instrument 
and  try  to  observe  the  passage  of  a  star.  On  the 
eclipse  expedition  mentioned  in  the  last  chapter  I 
had  used  a  sextant.  This  was  about  all  the  expe- 
rience in  practical  astronomy  which  I  could  claim. 
In  fact  I  had  never  been  inside  of  an  observatory, 
except  on  two  or  three  occasions  at  Cambridge  as  a 
visitor.  The  captain  reassured  me  by  saying  that 
no  great  experience  was  expected  of  a  newcomer, 
and  told  me  that  I  should  go  to  work  on  the  transit 
instrument  under  Professor  Yarnall,  to  whose  care 
I  was  then  confided. 

As  the  existence  of  a  corps  of  professors  of 
mathematics  is  peculiar  to  our  navy,  as  well  as  an 
apparent,  perhaps  a  real,  anomaly,  some  account  of 
it  may  be  of  interest.  Early  in  the  century  —  one 
hardly  knows  when  the  practice  began  —  the  Sec- 
retary of  the  Navy,  in  virtue  of  his  general  powers, 
used  to  appoint  men  as  professors  of  mathematics 
in  the  navy,  to  go  to  sea  and  teach  the  midship- 
men the  art  of  navigation.  In  1844,  when  work 
at  the  observatory  was  about  to  begin,  no  provision 
for  astronomers  was  made  by  Congress.  The  most 
convenient  way  of  supplying  this  want  was  to  have 
the  Secretary  appoint  professors  of  mathematics, 
and  send  them  to  the  observatory  on  duty. 

A   few   years    later    the   Naval   Academy  was 


100    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

founded  at  Annapolis,  and  a  similar  course  was 
pursued  to  provide  it  with  a  corps  of  instructors. 
Up  to  this  time  the  professors  had  no  form  of  ap- 
pointment except  a  warrant  from  the  Secretary  of 
the  Navy.  Early  in  the  history  of  the  academy  the 
midshipmen  burned  a  professor  in  effigy.  They 
were  brought  before  a  court-martial  on  the  charge 
of  disrespect  to  a  superior  officer,  but  pleaded  that 
the  professor,  not  holding  a  commission,  was  not 
their  superior  officer,  and  on  this  plea  were  ac- 
quitted. Congress  thereupon  took  the  matter  up, 
provided  that  the  number  of  professors  should  not 
exceed  twelve,  and  that  they  should  be  commis- 
sioned by  the  President  by  and  with  the  advice  and 
consent  of  the  Senate.  This  raised  their  rank  to 
that  of  a  commissioned  corps  in  the  navy.  They 
were  to  perform  such  duty  as  the  Secretary  of  the 
Navy  might  direct,  and  were,  for  the  most  part, 
divided  between  the  Naval  Academy  and  the  Ob- 
servatory. 

During  the  civil  war  some  complaint  was  made 
that  the  midshipmen  coming  from  the  academy 
were  not  well  trained  in  the  duties  of  a  seagoing 
officer ;  and  it  was  supposed  that  this  was  due  to 
too  much  of  their  time  being  given  to  scientific 
studies.  This  was  attributed  to  the  professors,  with 
the  result  that  nearly  all  those  attached  to  the 
academy  were  detached  during  the  four  years  fol- 
lowing the  close  of  the  civil  war  and  ordered  else- 
where, mostly  to  the  observatory.  Their  places 
were  taken  by  line  officers  who,  in  the  intervals 


LIFE  AND  WORK  AT  AN  OBSERVATORY      101 

between  their  turns  of  sea  duty,  were  made  heads 
of  departments  and  teachers  of  the  midshipmen  in 
nearly  every  branch. 

This  state  of  things  led  to  the  enactment  of  a 
law  (in  1869,  I  think),  "  that  hereafter  no  vacancy 
in  the  grade  of  professors  of  mathematics  in  the 
navy  shall  be  filled." 

In  1873  this  provision  was  annulled  by  a  law, 
again  providing  for  a  corps  of  twelve  professors, 
three  of  whom  should  have  the  relative  rank  of 
captain,  four  of  commander,  and  the  remainder  of 
lieutenant-commander  or  lieutenant. 

Up  to  1878  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  was  placed 
under  no  restrictions  as  to  his  choice  of  a  professor. 
He  could  appoint  any  citizen  whom  he  supposed  to 
possess  the  necessary  qualifications.  Then  it  was 
enacted  that,  before  appointment,  a  candidate  should 
pass  a  medical  and  a  professional  examination. 

I  have  said  that  the  main  cause  of  hesitation 
in  making  my  application  arose  from  my  aversion 
to  very  late  night  work.  It  soon  became  evident 
that  there  was  less  ground  than  I  had  supposed  for 
apprehension  on  this  point.  There  was  a  free  and 
easy  way  of  carrying  on  work  which  was  surprising 
to  one  who  had  supposed  it  all  arranged  on  strict 
plans,  and  done  according  to  rule  and  discipline. 
Professor  Yarnall,  whose  assistant  I  was,  was  an  ex- 
tremely pleasant  gentleman  to  be  associated  with. 
Although  one  of  the  most  industrious  workers  at 
the  observatory,  there  was  nothing  of  the  martinet 
about  him.  He  showed  me  how  to  handle  the  in- 


102    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

strument  and  record  my  observations.  There  was 
a  Nautical  Almanac  and  a  Catalogue  of  Stars.  Out 
of  these  each  of  us  could  select  what  he  thought 
best  to  observe. 

The  custom  was  that  one  of  us  should  come 
on  every  clear  evening,  make  observations  as  long 
as  he  chose,  and  then  go  home.  The  transit  in- 
strument was  at  one  end  of  the  building  and  the 
mural  circle,  in  charge  of  Professor  Hubbard,  at 
the  other.  He  was  weak  in  health,  and  unable  to 
do  much  continuous  work  of  any  kind,  especially 
the  hard  work  of  observing.  He  and  I  arranged 
to  observe  on  the  same  nights ;  but  I  soon  found 
that  there  was  no  concerted  plan  between  the  two 
sets  of  observers.  The  instruments  were  old-fash- 
ioned ones,  of  which  mine  could  determine  only  the 
right  ascension  of  a  star  and  his  only  its  declina- 
tion ;  hence  to  completely  determine  the  position  of 
a  celestial  body,  observations  must  be  made  on  the 
same  object  with  both  instruments.  But  I  soon 
found  that  there  was  no  concert  of  action  of  this 
kind.  Hubbard,  on  the  mural  circle,  had  his  plan 
of  work ;  Yarnall  and  myself,  on  the  transit,  had 
ours.  When  either  Hubbard  or  myself  got  tired, 
we  could  "  vote  it  cloudy  "  and  go  out  for  a  plate 
of  oysters  at  a  neighboring  restaurant. 

In  justice  to  Captain  Gilliss  it  must  be  said  that 
he  was  not  in  any  way  responsible  for  this  lack  of 
system.  It  grew  out  of  the  origin  and  history  of  the 
establishment  and  the  inaction  of  Congress.  The 
desirableness  of  our  having  a  national  observatory 


LIFE  AND  WORK  AT  AN  OBSERVATORY      103 

of  the  same  rank  as  those  of  other  countries  was 
pointed  out  from  time  to  time  by  eminent  states- 
men from  the  first  quarter  of  the  century.  John 
Qtiincy  Adams  had,  both  while  he  filled  the  presi- 
dential office  and  afterward,  made  active  efforts  in 
this  direction  ;  but  there  were  grave  doubts  whether 
Congress  had  any  constitutional  authority  to  erect 
such  an  institution,  and  the  project  got  mixed  up 
with  parties  and  politics.  So  strong  was  the  feel- 
ing on  the  subject  that,  when  the  Coast  Survey  was 
organized,  it  was  expressly  provided  that  it  should 
not  establish  an  astronomical  observatory. 

The  outcome  of  the  matter  was  that,  in  1842, 
when  Congress  at  length  decided  that  we  should 
have  our  national  observatory,  it  was  not  called 
such,  but  was  designated  as  a  "  house  "  to  serve  as 
a  depot  for  charts  and  instruments  for  the  navy. 
But  every  one  knew  that  an  observatory  was  meant. 
Gilliss  was  charged  with  its  erection,  and  paid  a 
visit  to  Europe  to  consult  with  astronomers  there  on 
its  design,  and  to  order  the  necessary  instruments. 
When  he  got  through  with  this  work  and  reported  it 
as  completed  he  was  relieved,  and  Lieutenant  Mat- 
thew F.  Maury  was  appointed  superintendent  of  the 
new  institution. 

Maury,  although  (as  he  wrote  a  few  years  later) 
quite  without  experience  in  the  use  of  astronomical 
instruments,  went  at  his  work  with  great  energy 
and  efficiency,  so  that,  for  two  or  three  years,  the 
institution  bade  fair  to  take  a  high  place  in  science. 
Then  he  branched  off  into  what  was,  from  a  prac- 


104    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

tical  standpoint,  the  vastly  more  important  work 
of  studying  the  winds  and  currents  of  the  ocean. 
The  epoch-making  character  of  his  investigations 
in  this  line,  and  their  importance  to  navigation 
when  ships  depended  on  sails  for  their  motive 
power,  were  soon  acknowledged  by  all  maritime 
nations,  and  the  fame  which  he  acquired  in  pur- 
suing them  added  greatly  to  the  standing  of  the 
institution  at  which  the  work  was  done,  though  in 
reality  an  astronomical  outfit  was  in  no  way  neces- 
sary to  it.  The  new  work  was  so  absorbing  that 
he  seemed  to  have  lost  interest  in  the  astronom- 
ical side  of  the  establishment,  which  he  left  to  his 
assistants.  The  results  were  that  on  this  side 
things  fell  into  the  condition  I  have  described,  and 
stayed  there  until  Maury  resigned  his  commission 
and  cast  his  fortunes  with  the  Confederacy.  Then 
Gilliss  took  charge  and  had  to  see  what  could  be 
done  under  the  circumstances. 

It  soon  became  evident  to  him  that  no  system 
of  work  of  the  first  order  of  importance  could  be 
initiated  until  the  instrumental  equipment  was 
greatly  improved.  The  clocks,  perfection  in  which 
is  almost  at  the  bottom  of  good  work,  were  quite 
unfit  for  use.  The  astronomical  clock  with  which 
Yarnall  and  I  made  our  observations  kept  worse 
time  than  a  high-class  pocket  watch  does  to-day. 
The  instruments  were  antiquated  and  defective  in 
several  particulars.  Before  real  work  could  be 
commenced  new  ones  must  be  procured.  But  the 
civil  war  was  in  progress,  and  the  times  were  not 


LIFE  AND  WORK  AT  AN  OBSERVATORY      105 

favorable  to  immediately  securing  them.  That  the 
work  of  the  observatory  was  kept  up  was  due  to 
a  feeling  of  pride  on  the  part  of  our  authorities 
in  continuing  it  without  interruption  through  the 
conflict.  The  personnel  was  as  insufficient  as  the 
instruments.  On  it  devolved  not  only  the  making 
of  the  astronomical  observations,  but  the  issue  of 
charts  and  chronometers  to  the  temporarily  im- 
mense navy.  In  fact  the  observatory  was  still  a 
depot  of  charts  for  the  naval  service,  and  contin- 
ued to  be  such  until  the  Hydrographic  Office  was 
established  in  1866. 

In  1863  Gilliss  obtained  authority  to  have  the 
most  pressing  wants  supplied  by  the  construction  of 
a  great  transit  circle  by  Pistor  and  Martins  in  Ber- 
lin. He  had  a  comprehensive  plan  of  work  with 
this  instrument  when  it  should  arrive,  but  deferred 
putting  any  such  plan  in  operation  until  its  actual 
reception. 

Somehow  the  work  of  editing,  explaining,  and 
preparing  for  the  press  the  new  series  of  observa- 
tions made  by  Yarnall  and  myself  with  our  old 
transit  instrument  devolved  on  me.  To  do  this 
in  the  most  satisfactory  way,  it  was  necessary  to 
make  a  careful  study  of  the  methods  and  system  at 
the  leading  observatories  of  other  countries  in  the 
line  we  were  pursuing,  especially  Greenwich.  Here 
I  was  struck  by  the  superiority  of  their  system  to 
ours.  Everything  was  there  done  on  an  exact  and 
uniform  plan,  and  one  which  seemed  to  me  better 
adapted  to  get  the  best  results  than  ours  was.  For 


106    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

the  non-astronomical  reader  it  may  be  remarked 
that  after  an  astronomer  has  made  and  recorded 
his  observations,  a  large  amount  of  calculation  is 
necessary  to  obtain  the  result  to  which  they  lead. 
Making  such  calculations  is  called  "  reducing  "  the 
observations.  Now  in  the  previous  history  of  the 
observatory,  the  astronomers  fell  into  the  habit  of 
every  one  not  only  making  his  observations  in  his 
own  way,  but  reducing  them  for  himself.  Thus 
it  happened  that  Yarnall  had  been  making  and 
reducing  his  observations  in  his  own  way,  and  I, 
on  alternate  nights,  had  been  making  and  redu- 
cing mine  in  my  way,  which  was  modeled  after  the 
Greenwich  fashion,  and  therefore  quite  different 
from  his.  Now  I  suddenly  found  myself  face  to 
face  with  the  problem  of  putting  these  two  hetero- 
geneous things  together  so  as  to  make  them  look 
like  a  homogeneous  whole.  I  was  extremely  mor- 
tified to  see  how  poor  a  showing  would  be  made  in 
the  eyes  of  foreign  astronomers.  But  I  could  do 
nothing  more  than  to  describe  the  work  and  meth- 
ods in  such  a  way  as  to  keep  in  the  background 
the  want  of  system  that  characterized  them. 

Notwithstanding  all  these  drawbacks  of  the  pre- 
sent, the  prospect  of  future  success  seemed  bril- 
liant. Gilliss  had  the  unlimited  confidence  of  the 
Secretary  of  the  Navy,  had  a  family  very  popular 
in  Washington  society,  was  enthusiastically  de- 
voted to  building  up  the  work  of  the  observatory, 
and  was  drawing  around  him  the  best  young  men 
that  could  be  found  to  do  that  work.  He  made  it 


LIFE  AND  WORK  AT  AN   OBSERVATORY      107 

a  point  that  his  relations  with  his  scientific  subor- 
dinates should  be  not  only  official,  but  of  the  most 
friendly  social  character.  All  were  constantly  in- 
vited to  his  charming  family  circle.  It  was  from 
the  occasional  talks  thus  arising  that  I  learned  the 
details  of  his  plan  of  work  with  the  coming  instru- 
ment. 

In  1862  Gilliss  had  the  working  force  increased 
by  the  appointment  of  four  "  aides,"  as  they  were 
then  called,  —  a  number  that  was  afterwards  re- 
duced to  three.  This  was  the  beginning  of  the 
corps  of  three  assistant  astronomers,  which  is  still 
maintained.  It  will  be  of  interest  to  know  that 
the  first  aide  was  Asaph  Hall ;  but  before  his  ap- 
pointment was  made,  an  impediment,  which  for  a 
time  looked  serious,  had  to  be  overcome.  Gilliss 
desired  that  the  aide  should  hold  a  good  social  and 
family  position.  The  salary  being  only  $1000, 
this  required  that  he  should  not  be  married.  Hall 
being  married,  with  a  growing  family,  his  appoint- 
ment was  long  objected  to,  and  it  was  only  through 
much  persuasion  on  the  part  of  Hubbard  and  my- 
self that  Gilliss  was  at  length  induced  to  withdraw 
his  objections.  Among  other  early  appointees 
were  William  Harkness  and  John  A.  Eastman, 
whose  subsequent  careers  in  connection  with  the 
observatory  are  well  known. 

The  death  of  Professor  Hubbard  in  1863  led  to 
my  taking  his  place,  in  charge  of  the  mural  circle, 
early  in  September  of  that  year.  This  gave  me 
an  opportunity  of  attempting  a  little  improvement 


108    THE   REMINISCENCES  OF  AN   ASTRONOMER 

in  the  arrangements.  I  soon  became  conscious  of 
the  fact,  which  no  one  had  previously  taken  much 
account  of,  that  upon  the  plan  of  each  man  re- 
ducing his  own  observations,  not  only  was  there 
an  entire  lack  of  homogeneity  in  the  work,  but  the 
more  work  one  did  at  night  the  more  he  had  to 
do  by  day.  It  was  with  some  trepidation  that  I 
presented  the  case  to  Gilliss,  who  speedily  saw  that 
work  done  with  the  instruments  should  be  regarded 
as  that  of  the  observatory,  and  reduced  on  a  uni- 
form plan,  instead  of  being  considered  as  the  pro- 
perty of  the  individual  who  happened  to  make  it. 
Thus  was  introduced  the  first  step  toward  a  proper 
official  system. 

In  February,  1865,  the  observatory  sustained 
the  greatest  loss  it  had  ever  suffered,  in  the  sudden 
death  of  its  superintendent.  What  it  would  have 
grown  to  had  he  lived  it  is  useless  to  guess,  but 
there  is  little  doubt  that  its  history  would  have 
been  quite  different  from  what  it  is. 

Soon  afterward  Admiral  Davis  left  his  position 
as  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Navigation  to  take  the 
subordinate  one  of  Superintendent  of  the  Observa- 
tory. This  step  was  very  gratifying  to  me.  Davis 
had  not  only  a  great  interest  in  scientific  work, 
especially  astronomy,  but  a  genuine  admiration  of 
scientific  men  which  I  have  never  seen  exceeded, 
accompanied  with  a  corresponding  love  of  associa- 
tion with  them  and  their  work. 

In  October,  1865,  occurred  what  was,  in  my  eyes, 
the  greatest  event  in  the  history  of  the  observatory. 


LIFE  AND  WORK  AT  AN  OBSERVATORY      109 

The  new  transit  circle  arrived  from  Berlin  in  its 
boxes.  Now  for  the  first  time  in  its  history,  the  ob- 
servatory would  have  a  meridian  instrument  worthy 
of  it,  and  would,  it  was  hoped,  be  able  to  do  the 
finest  work  in  at  least  one  branch  of  astronomy. 
To  my  great  delight,  Davis  placed  me  in  charge  of 
it.  The  last  three  months  of  the  year  were  taken 
up  with  mounting  it  in  position  and  making  those 
investigations  of  its  peculiarities  which  are  neces- 
sary before  an  instrument  of  the  kind  is  put  into 
regular  use.  On  the  1st  day  of  January,  1866, 
this  was  all  done,  and  we  were  ready  to  begin 
operations.  An  opportunity  thus  arose  of  seeing 
what  we  could  do  in  the  way  of  a  regular  and 
well-planned  piece  of  work.  In  the  greater  clear- 
ness of  our  sky,  and  the  more  southern  latitude  of 
our  observatory,  we  had  two  great  advantages  over 
Greenwich.  Looking  back  at  his  first  two  or  three 
years  of  work  at  the  observatory,  Maury  wrote  to 
a  friend,  "  We  have  beaten  Greenwich  hollow." 
It  may  be  that  I  felt  like  trying  to  do  the  same 
thing  over  again.  At  any  rate,  I  mapped  out  a 
plan  of  work  the  execution  of  which  would  require 
four  years. 

It  was  a  piece  of  what,  in  astronomy,  is  called 
"  fundamental  work,"  in  which  results  are  to  be 
obtained  independent  of  any  previously  obtained 
by  other  observers.  It  had  become  evident  to  me 
from  our  own  observations,  as  well  as  from  a  study 
of  those  made  at  European  observatories,  that  an 
error  in  the  right  ascension  of  stars,  so  that  stars 


110    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

in  opposite  quarters  of  the  heavens  would  not 
agree,  might  very  possibly  have  crept  into  nearly  all 
the  modern  observations  at  Greenwich,  Paris,  and 
Washington.  The  determination  of  this  error  was 
no  easy  matter.  It  was  necessary  that,  whenever 
possible,  observations  should  be  continued  through 
the  greater  part  of  the  twenty-four  hours.  One 
observer  must  be  at  work  with  comparative  steadi- 
ness from  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning  until  mid- 
night or  even  dawn  of  the  morning  following. 
This  requirement  was,  however,  less  exacting  than 
might  appear  when  stated.  One  half  the  nights 
would,  as  a  general  rule,  be  cloudy,  and  an  observer 
was  not  expected  to  work  on  Sunday.  Hence  no 
one  of  the  four  observers  would  probably  have  to 
do  such  a  day's  work  as  this  more  than  thirty  or 
forty  times  in  a  year. 

All  this  was  hard  work  enough  in  itself,  but 
conditions  existed  which  made  it  yet  harder.  No 
houses  were  then  provided  for  astronomers,  and  the 
observatory  itself  was  situated  in  one  of  the  most 
unhealthy  parts  of  the  city.  On  two  sides  it  was 
bounded  by  the  Potomac,  then  pregnant  with  ma- 
laria, and  on  the  other  two,  for  nearly  half  a  mile, 
was  found  little  but  frame  buildings  filled  with 
quartermaster's  stores,  with  here  and  there  a  few 
negro  huts.  Most  of  the  observers  lived  a  mile  or 
more  from  the  observatory ;  during  most  of  the 
time  I  was  two  miles  away.  It  was  not  considered 
safe  to  take  even  an  hour's  sleep  at  the  observa- 
tory. The  result  was  that,  if  it  happened  to  clear 


LIFE  AND  WORK  AT  AN  OBSERVATORY       111 

off  after  a  cloudy  evening,  I  frequently  arose  from 
my  bed  at  any  hour  of  the  night  or  morning  and 
walked  two  miles  to  the  observatory  to  make  some 
observation  included  in  the  programme. 

This  was  certainly  a  new  departure  from  the  free 
and  easy  way  in  which  we  had  been  proceeding,  and 
it  was  one  which  might  be  unwelcome  to  any  but 
a  zealous  astronomer.  As  I  should  get  the  lion's 
share  of  credit  for  its  results,  whether  I  wanted  to 
or  not,  my  interest  in  the  work  was  natural.  But 
it  was  unreasonable  to  expect  my  assistants,  one  or 
two  of  whom  had  been  raised  to  the  rank  of  pro- 
fessor, to  feel  the  same  interest,  and  it  is  very  cred- 
itable to  then1  zeal  that  we  pursued  it  for  some 
tune  as  well  as  we  did.  If  there  was  any  serious 
dissatisfaction  with  the  duty,  I  was  not  informed 
of  that  fact. 

During  the  second  year  of  this  work  Admiral  Da- 
vis was  detached  and  ordered  to  sea.  The  question 
of  a  successor  interested  many  besides  ourselves. 
Secretary  Welles  considered  the  question  what  pol- 
icy should  be  pursued  in  the  appointment.  Profes- 
sor Henry  took  part  in  the  matter  by  writing  the 
secretary  a  letter,  in  which  he  urged  the  appoint- 
ment of  an  astronomer  as  head  of  the  institution. 
His  position  prevented  his  supporting  any  particu- 
lar candidate  ;  so  he  submitted  a  list  of  four  names, 
any  one  of  which  would  be  satisfactory.  These 
were  :  Professor  William  Chauvenet,  Dr.  B.  A. 
Gould,  Professor  J.  H.  C.  Coffin,  U.  S.  N.,  and  Mr. 
James  Ferguson.  The  latter  held  a  civil  position 


112    THE  REMINISCENCES   OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

at  the  observatory,  under  the  title  of  "  assistant 
astronomer/'  and  was  at  the  time  the  longest  in 
service  of  any  of  its  force. 

A  different  view  was  urged  upon  the  secretary 
in  terms  substantially  these  :  "  Professors  so  able 
as  those  of  the  observatory  require  no  one  to  di- 
rect their  work.  All  that  the  observatory  really 
needs  is  an  administrative  head  who  shall  preserve 
order,  look  after  its  business  generally,  and  see  that 
everything  goes  smoothly."  Such  a  head  the  navy 
can  easily  supply. 

The  secretary  allowed  it  to  be  given  out  that  he 
would  be  glad  to  hear  from  the  professors  upon  the 
subject.  I  thereupon  went  to  him  and  expressed 
my  preference  for  Professor  Coffin.  He  asked  me, 
"  How  would  it  do  to  have  a  purely  administrative 
head?" 

I  replied  that  we  might  get  along  for  a  time  if 
he  did  not  interfere  with  our  work. 

"  No,"  said  the  secretary,  "  he  shall  not  inter- 
fere. That  shall  be  understood." 

As  I  left  him  there  was,  to  my  inexperienced 
mind,  something  very  odd  in  this  function,  or  ab- 
sence of  function,  of  the  head  of  an  establishment; 
but  of  course  I  had  to  bow  to  superior  wisdom  and 
could  say  nothing. 

The  policy  of  Commodore  (afterward  Rear-Ad- 
miral) Sands,  the  incoming  superintendent,  toward 
the  professors  was  liberal  in  the  last  degree.  Each 
was  to  receive  due  credit  for  what  he  did,  and  was 
in  every  way  stimulated  to  do  his  best  at  any  piece 


LIFE  AND  WORK  AT  AN  OBSERVATORY      113 

of  scientific  work  he  might  undertake  with  the  ap- 
proval of  the  superintendent.  Whether  he  wanted 
to  observe  an  eclipse,  determine  the  longitude  of  a 
town  or  interior  station,  or  undertake  some  abstruse 
investigation,  every  facility  for  doing  it  and  every 
encouragement  to  go  on  with  it  was  granted  him. 

Under  this  policy  the  observatory  soon  reached 
the  zenith  of  its  fame  and  popularity.  Whenever 
a  total  eclipse  of  the  sun  was  visible  in  an  acces- 
sible region  parties  were  sent  out  to  observe  it.  In 
1869  three  professors,  I  being  one,  were  sent  to 
Des  Moines,  Iowa,  to  observe  the  solar  eclipse  which 
passed  across  the  country  in  June  of  that  year.  As 
a  part  of  this  work,  I  prepared  and  the  observatory 
issued  a  detailed  set  of  instructions  to  observers  in 
towns  at  each  edge  of  the  shadow-path  to  note  the 
short  duration  of  totality.  The  object  was  to  deter- 
mine the  exact  point  to  which  the  shadow  extended. 
At  this  same  eclipse  Professor  Harkness  shared  with 
Professor  Young  of  Princeton  the  honor  of  discov- 
ering the  brightest  line  in  the  spectrum  of  the  sun's 
corona.  The  year  foUowing  parties  were  sent  to 
the  Mediterranean  to  observe  an  eclipse  which  oc- 
curred in  December,  1870.  I  went  to  Gibraltar, 
although  the  observation  of  the  eclipse  was  to  me 
only  a  minor  object.  Some  incidents  connected 
with  this  European  trip  will  be  described  in  a  sub- 
sequent chapter. 

The  reports  of  the  eclipse  parties  not  only  de- 
scribed the  scientific  observations  in  great  detail, 
but  also  the  travels  and  experiences,  and  were  some- 


114    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

times  marked  by  a  piquancy  not  common  in  official 
documents.  These  reports,  others  pertaining  to 
longitude,  and  investigations  of  various  kinds  were 
published  in  full  and  distributed  with  great  liberal- 
ity. All  this  activity  grew  out  of  the  stimulating 
power  and  careful  attention  to  business  of  the  head 
of  the  observatory  and  the  ability  of  the  young 
professors  of  his  staff.  It  was  very  pleasant  to  the 
latter  to  wear  the  brilliant  uniform  of  their  rank, 
enjoy  the  protection  of  the  Navy  Department,  and 
be  looked  upon,  one  and  all,  as  able  official  astro- 
nomers. The  voice  of  one  of  our  scientific  men  who 
returned  from  a  visit  abroad  declaring  that  one  of 
our  eclipse  reports  was  the  laughing-stock  of  Europe 
was  drowned  in  the  general  applause. 

In  the  latter  part  of  1869  I  had  carried  forward 
the  work  with  the  transit  circle  as  far  as  it  could 
be  profitably  pursued  under  existing  conditions. 
On  working  up  my  observations,  the  error  which  I 
had  suspected  in  the  adopted  positions  of  the  stars 
was  proved  to  be  real.  But  the  discovery  of  this 
error  was  due  more  to  the  system  of  observation, 
especially  the  pursuit  of  the  latter  through  the  day 
and  night,  than  it  was  to  any  excellence  of  the 
instrument.  The  latter  proved  to  have  serious  de- 
fects which  were  exaggerated  by  the  unstable  char- 
acter of  the  clayey  soil  of  the  hill  on  which  the  ob- 
servatory was  situated.  Other  defects  also  existed, 
which  seemed  to  preclude  the  likelihood  that  the 
future  work  of  the  instrument  would  be  of  a  high 
class.  I  had  also  found  that  very  difficult  mathe- 


LIFE  AND  WORK  AT  AN  OBSERVATORY      115 

matical  investigations  were  urgently  needed  to  un- 
ravel one  of  the  greatest  mysteries  of  astronomy, 
that  of  the  moon's  motion.  This  was  a  much  more 
important  work  than  making  observations,  and  I 
wished  to  try  my  hand  at  it.  So  in  the  autumn  I 
made  a  formal  application  to  the  Secretary  of  the 
Navy  to  be  transferred  from  the  observatory  to  the 
Nautical  Almanac  Office  for  the  purpose  of  enga- 
ging in  researches  on  the  motion  of  the  moon.  On 
handing  this  application  to  the  superintendent  he 
suggested  that  the  work  in  question  might  just  as 
well  be  done  at  the  observatory.  I  replied  that 
I  thought  that  the  business  of  the  observatory  was 
to  make  and  reduce  astronomical  observations  with 
its  instruments,  and  that  the  making  of  investi- 
gations of  the  kind  I  had  in  view  had  always  been 
considered  to  belong  to  the  Nautical  Almanac  Of- 
fice. He  replied  that  he  deemed  it  equally  appro- 
priate for  the  observatory  to  undertake  it.  As  my 
objection  was  founded  altogether  on  a  principle 
which  he  refused  to  accept,  and  as  by  doing  the 
work  at  the  observatory  I  should  have  ready  access 
to  its  library,  I  consented  to  the  arrangement  he 
proposed.  Accordingly,  in  forwarding  my  applica- 
tion, he  asked  that  my  order  should  be  so  worded 
as  not  to  detach  me  from  the  observatory,  but  to 
add  the  duty  I  asked  for  to  that  which  I  was 
already  performing. 

So  far  as  I  was  personally  concerned,  this  change 
was  fortunate  rather  than  otherwise.  As  things 
go  in  Washington,  the  man  who  does  his  work  in 


116    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

a  fine  public  building  can  gain  consideration  for 
it  much  more  readily  than  if  he  does  it  in  a  hired 
office  like  that  which  the  "  Nautical  Almanac  "  then 
occupied.  My  continued  presence  on  the  observa- 
tory staff  led  to  my  taking  part  in  two  of  the  great 
movements  of  the  next  ten  years,  the  construction 
and  inauguration  of  the  great  telescope  and  the 
observations  of  the  transit  of  Venus.  But  for  the 
time  being  my  connection  with  the  regular  work  of 
the  observatory  ceased. 

On  the  retirement  of  Admiral  Sands  in  1874, 
Admiral  Davis  returned  to  the  observatory,  and 
continued  in  charge  until  his  death  in  February, 
1877.  The  principal  event  of  this  second  admin- 
istration was  the  dispatch  of  parties  to  observe  the 
transit  of  Venus.  Of  this  I  shall  speak  in  full  in 
a  subsequent  chapter. 

One  incident,  although  of  no  public  importance, 
was  of  some  interest  at  the  time.  This  was  a  visit 
of  the  only  emperor  who,  I  believe,  had  ever  set 
foot  on  our  shores,  —  Dom  Pedro  of  Brazil.  He 
had  chosen  the  occasion  of  our  Centennial  for  a 
visit  to  this  country,  and  excited  great  interest 
during  his  stay,  not  only  by  throwing  off  all  im- 
perial reserve  during  his  travels,  but  by  the  curi- 
osity and  vigor  with  which  he  went  from  place  to 
place  examining  and  studying  everything  he  could 
find,  and  by  the  singular  extent  of  his  knowledge 
on  almost  every  subject  of  a  scientific  or  technical 
character.  A  Philadelphia  engineer  with  whom  he 
talked  was  quoted  as  saying  that  his  knowledge  of 


LIFE  AND  WORK  AT  AN  OBSERVATORY        117 

engineering  was  not  merely  of  the  ordinary  kind 
to  be  expected  in  an  intelligent  man,  but  extended 
to  the  minutest  details  and  latest  improvements  in 
the  building  of  bridges,  which  was  the  specialty  of 
the  engineer  in  question. 

Almost  as  soon  as  he  arrived  in  Washington  I 
received  the  following  letter  by  a  messenger  from 
the  Arlington  Hotel  :  — 

MR.: 

En  arrivant  a  Washington  j'ai  tout-de-suite  songe  a 
votre  observatoire,  ou  vous  avez  acquis  tant  de  droit  a 
Testime  de  tout  ceux  qui  achevent  la  science.  Je  m'y 
rendrai  done  aujourd'hui  a  7  heures  du  soir,  et  je  compte 
vous  y  trouver,  surtout  pour  vous  remercier  de  votre 
beau  me'moire  que  j'ai  rec,u  peu  avant  mon  depart  de 
mon  pays,  et  que  je  n'ai  pas  pu,  par  consequent,  appre- 
cier  autant  que  je  1'aurais  voulu.  En  me  plaisant  de 
1'espoir  de  vous  connaitre  personnellement  je  vous  prie  de 
me  compter  parmi  vos  affectionnes. 

D.  PEDRO  D' ALCANTARA. 
7  Mai,  1876. 

Like  other  notes  which  I  subsequently  received 
from  him,  it  was  in  his  own  autograph  throughout : 
if  he  brought  any  secretary  with  him  on  his  travels 
I  never  heard  of  it. 

The  letter  placed  me  in  an  embarrassing  posi- 
tion, because  its  being  addressed  to  me  was  in  con- 
travention of  all  official  propriety.  Of  course  I 
lost  no  time  in  calling  on  him  and  trying  to  explain 
the  situation.  I  told  him  that  Admiral  Davis, 
whom  he  well  knew  from  his  being  in  command 
of  the  Brazilian  station  a  few  years  before,  was 


118    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

the  head  of  the  observatory,  and  hinted  as  plainly 
as  I  could  that  a  notification  of  the  coming  of  such 
a  visitor  as  he  should  be  sent  to  the  head  of  the 
institution.  But  he  refused  to  take  the  hint,  and 
indicated  that  he  expected  me  to  arrange  the  whole 
matter  for  him.  This  I  did  by  going  to  the  obser- 
vatory and  frankly  explaining  the  matter  to  Admi- 
ral Davis.  Happily  the  latter  was  not  a  stickler 
for  official  forms,  and  was  cast  in  too  large  a  mould 
to  take  offense  where  none  was  intended.  At  his 
invitation  I  acted  as  one  of  the  receiving  party. 
The  carriage  drove  up  at  the  appointed  hour,  and 
its  occupant  was  welcomed  by  the  admiral  at  the 
door  with  courtly  dignity.  The  visitor  had  no 
time  to  spend  in  preliminaries ;  he  wished  to  look 
through  the  establishment  immediately. 

The  first  object  to  meet  his  view  was  a  large 
marble-cased  clock  which,  thirty  years  before,  had 
acquired  some  celebrity  from  being  supposed  to 
embody  the  first  attempt  to  apply  electricity  to 
the  recording  of  astronomical  observations.  It  was 
said  to  have  cost  a  large  sum,  paid  partly  as  a  re- 
ward to  its  inventor.  Its  only  drawbacks  were 
that  it  would  not  keep  time  and  had  never,  so  far 
as  I  am  aware,  served  any  purpose  but  that  of  an 
ornament.  The  first  surprise  came  when  the  visitor 
got  down  on  his  hands  and  knees  in  front  of  the 
clock,  reached  his  hands  under  it,  and  proceeded 
to  examine  its  supports.  We  all  wondered  what 
it  could  mean.  When  he  arose,  it  was  explained. 
He  did  not  see  how  a  clock  supported  in  this  way 


LIFE  AND  WORK  AT  AN  OBSERVATORY      119 

could  keep  the  exact  time  necessary  in  the  work  of 
an  astronomer.  So  we  had  to  tell  him  that  the 
clock  was  not  used  for  this  purpose,  and  that  he 
must  wait  until  we  visited  the  observing  rooms  to 
see  our  clocks  properly  supported. 

The  only  evidence  of  the  imperial  will  came  out 
when  he  reached  the  great  telescope.  The  moon, 
near  first  quarter,  was  then  shining,  but  the  night 
was  more  than  half  cloudy,  and  there  was  no  hope 
of  obtaining  more  than  a  chance  glimpse  at  it 
through  the  clouds.  But  he  wished  to  see  the 
moon  through  the  telescope.  I  replied  that  the 
sky  was  now  covered,  and  it  was  very  doubtful 
whether  we  should  get  a  view  of  the  moon.  But 
he  required  that  the  telescope  should  be  at  once 
pointed  at  it.  This  was  done,  and  at  that  moment 
a  clear  space  appeared  between  the  clouds.  I  re- 
marked upon  the  fact,  but  he  seemed  to  take  it  as 
a  matter  of  course  that  the  cloud  would  get  out  of 
the  way  when  he  wanted  to  look. 

I  made  some  remark  about  the  "  vernier  "  of  one 
of  the  circles  on  the  telescope. 

"  Why  do  you  call  it  a  vernier  ?  "  said  he.  "  Its 
proper  term  is  a  nonius,  because  Nonius  was  its  in- 
ventor and  Vernier  took  the  idea  from  him." 

In  this  the  national  spirit  showed  itself.  Nonius, 
a  Portuguese,  had  invented  something  on  a  similar 
principle  and  yet  essentially  different  from  the 
modern  vernier,  invented  by  a  Frenchman  of  that 
name. 

Accompanying  the  party  was  a  little  girl,  ten  or 


120    THE  KEMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

twelve  years  old,  who,  though  an  interested  spec- 
tator, modestly  kept  in  the  background  and  said 
nothing.  On  her  arrival  home,  however,  she  broke 
her  silence  by  running  upstairs  with  the  exclama- 
tion, — 

"  Oh,  Mamma,  he  's  the  funniest  emperor  you 
ever  did  see  !  " 

My  connection  with  the  observatory  ceased  Sep- 
tember 15,  1877,  when  I  was  placed  in  charge  of 
the  Nautical  Almanac  Office.  It  may  not,  how- 
ever, be  out  of  place  to  summarize  the  measures 
which  have  since  been  taken  both  by  the  Navy 
Department  and  by  eminent  officers  of  the  service 
to  place  the  work  of  the  institution  on  a  sound 
basis.  One  great  difficulty  in  doing  this  arises 
from  the  fact  that  neither  Congress  nor  the  Navy 
Department  has  ever  stated  the  object  which  the 
government  had  in  view  in  erecting  the  observa- 
tory, or  assigned  to  it  any  well-defined  public 
functions.  The  superintendent  and  his  staff  have 
therefore  been  left  to  solve  the  question  what  to 
do  from  time  to  time  as  best  they  could. 

In  the  spring  of  1877  Rear-Admiral  John  Rodg- 
ers  became  the  superintendent  of  the  observatory. 
As  a  cool  and  determined  fighter  during  the  civil 
war  he  was  scarcely  second  even  to  Farragut,  and 
he  was  at  the  same  time  one  of  the  ablest  offi- 
cers and  most  estimable  men  that  our  navy  ever 
included  in  its  ranks.  "  I  would  rather  be  John 
Rodgers  dead  than  any  other  man  I  know  living," 
was  said  by  one  of  the  observatory  assistants  after 


LIFE  AND  WORK  AT  AN  OBSERVATORY      121 

his  death.  Not  many  months  after  his  accession 
he  began  to  consider  the  question  whether  the  wide 
liberty  which  had  been  allowed  the  professors  in 
choosing  their  work  was  adapted  to  attain  success. 
The  Navy  Department  also  desired  to  obtain  some 
expressions  of  opinion  on  the  subject.  The  result 
was  a  discussion  and  an  official  paper,  not  emanat- 
ing from  the  admiral,  however,  in  which  the  duty 
of  the  head  of  the  observatory  was  defined  in  the 
following  terms :  — 

"  The  superintendent  of  the  observatory  should 
be  a  line  officer  of  the  navy,  of  high  rank,  who 
should  attend  to  the  business  affairs  of  the  institu- 
tion, thus  leaving  the  professors  leisure  for  their 
proper  work." 

Although  he  did  not  entirely  commit  himself  to 
this  view,  he  was  under  the  impression  that  to  get 
the  best  work  out  of  the  professors  their  hearts 
must  be  in  it ;  and  this  would  not  be  the  case  if 
any  serious  restraint  was  placed  upon  them  as  to 
the  work  they  should  undertake. 

After  Eodgers's  death  Vice- Admiral  Eowan  was 
appointed  superintendent.  About  this  time  it  would 
seem  that  the  department  was  again  disposed  to 
inquire  into  the  results  of  the  liberal  policy  here- 
tofore pursued.  Commander  (since  Rear- Admiral) 
William  T.  Sampson  was  ordered  to  the  observa- 
tory, not  as  its  head,  but  as  assistant  to  the  super- 
intendent. He  was  one  of  the  most  proficient  men 
in  practical  physics  that  the  navy  has  ever  produced. 
I  believe  that  one  reason  for  choosing  so  able  and 


122    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

energetic  an  officer  for  the  place  was  to  see  if  any 
improvement  could  be  made  on  the  system.  As  I 
was  absent  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  to  observe 
the  transit  of  Venus  during  the  most  eventful  oc- 
casion of  his  administration,  I  have  very  little 
personal  knowledge  of  it.  It  seems,  however,  that 
newspaper  attacks  were  made  on  him,  in  which  he 
was  charged  with  taking  possession  of  all  the  in- 
struments of  the  observatory  but  two,  and  placing 
them  in  charge  of  naval  officers  who  were  not  pro- 
ficient in  astronomical  science.  In  reply  he  wrote 
an  elaborate  defense  of  his  action  to  the  "  New 
York  Herald, "  which  appeared  in  the  number  for 
February  13,  1883.  The  following  extract  is  all 
that  need  find  a  place  in  the  present  connection. 

When  I  came  here  on  duty  a  little  more  than  a  year 
since,  I  found  these  instruments  disused.  The  transit 
instrument  had  not  been  used  since  1878,  and  then  only 
at  intervals  for  several  years  previous  ;  the  mural  circle 
had  not  been  used  since  1877 ;  the  prime  vertical  had 
not  been  used  since  1867.  These  instruments  had  been 
shamefully  neglected  and  much  injured  thereby.  .  .  . 
The  small  equatorial  and  comet  seeker  were  in  the  same 
disgraceful  condition,  and  were  unfit  for  any  real  work. 

Admiral  Franklin  was  made  superintendent  some- 
time in  1883,  I  believe,  and  issued  an  order  pro- 
viding that  the  work  of  the  observatory  should  be 
planned  by  a  board  consisting  of  the  superin- 
tendent, the  senior  line  officer,  and  the  senior  pro- 
fessor. Professors  or  officers  in  charge  of  instru- 
ments were  required  to  prepare  a  programme  for 


LIFE  AND  WORK  AT  AN  OBSERVATORY      123 

their  proposed  work  each  year  in  advance,  which 
programme  would  be  examined  by  the  board.  Of 
the  work  of  this  board  or  its  proceedings,  no  clear 
knowledge  can  be  gleaned  from  the  published  re- 
ports, nor  do  I  know  how  long  it  continued. 

In  1885  Secretary  Whitney  referred  to  the  Na- 
tional Academy  of  Sciences  the  question  of  the 
advisability  of  proceeding  promptly  with  the  erec- 
tion of  a  new  naval  observatory  upon  the  site  pur- 
chased in  1880.  The  report  of  the  academy  was 
in  the  affirmative,  but  it  was  added  that  the  obser- 
vatory should  be  erected  and  named  as  a  national 
one,  and  placed  under  civilian  administration.  The 
year  following  Congress  made  the  preliminary 
appropriation  for  the  commencement  of  the  new 
building,  but  no  notice  was  taken  of  the  recom- 
mendation of  the  academy. 

In  1891  the  new  buildings  were  approaching 
completion,  and  Secretary  Tracy  entered  upon  the 
question  of  the  proper  administration  of  the  obser- 
vatory. He  discussed  the  subject  quite  fully  in 
his  annual  report  for  that  year,  stating  his  con- 
clusion in  the  following  terms  :  — 

I  therefore  recommend  the  adoption  of  legislation 
which  shall  instruct  the  President  to  appoint,  at  a  suf- 
ficient salary,  without  restriction,  from  persons  either 
within  or  outside  the  naval  service,  the  ablest  and  most 
accomplished  astronomer  who  can  be  found  for  the  posi- 
tion of  superintendent. 

At  the  following  session  of  Congress  Sena- 
tor Hale  introduced  an  amendment  to  the  naval 


124    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

appropriation  bill,  providing  for  the  expenses  of  a 
commission  to  be  appointed  by  the  Secretary  of  the 
Navy,  to  consider  and  report  upon  the  organization 
of  the  observatory.  The  House  non-concurred  in 
this  amendment,  and  it  was  dropped  from  the  bill. 

At  the  same  session,  all  the  leading  astronomers 
of  the  country  united  in  a  petition  to  Congress, 
asking  that  the  recommendation  of  the  Secretary 
of  the  Navy  should  be  carried  into  effect.  After 
a  very  patient  hearing  of  arguments  on  the  subject 
by  Professor  Boss  and  others,  the  House  Naval 
Committee  reported  unanimously  against  the  mea- 
sure, claiming  that  the  navy  had  plenty  of  officers 
able  to  administer  the  observatory  in  a  satisfactory 
way,  and  that  there  was  therefore  no  necessity  for 
a  civilian  head. 

Two  years  later,  Senator  Morrill  offered  an 
amendment  to  the  legislative  appropriation  bill,  pro- 
viding that  the  superintendent  of  the  observatory 
should  be  selected  from  civil  life,  and  be  learned  in 
the  science  of  astronomy.  He  supported  his  amend- 
ment by  letters  from  a  number  of  leading  astro- 
nomers of  the  country  in  reply  to  questions  which 
he  had  addressed  to  them. 

This  amendment,  after  being  approved  by  the 
Senate  Naval  Committee,  was  referred  by  the  Com- 
mittee on  Appropriations  to  the  Secretary  of  the 
Navy.  He  recommended  a  modification  of  the 
measure  so  as  to  provide  for  the  appointment  of  a 
"  Director  of  Astronomy,"  to  have  charge  of  the 
astronomical  work  of  the  observatory,  which  should, 


LIFE  AND  WORK  AT  AN  OBSERVATORY      125 

however,  remain  under  a  naval  officer  as  superin- 
tendent. This  arrangement  was  severely  criticised 
in  the  House  by  Mr.  Thomas  B.  Reed,  of  Maine, 
and  the  whole  measure  was  defeated  in  conference. 

In  1892,  when  the  new  observatory  was  being 
occupied,  the  superintendent  promulgated  regula- 
tions for  its  work.  These  set  forth  in  great  detail 
what  the  observatory  should  do.  Its  work  was 
divided  into  nine  departments,  each  with  its  chief, 
besides  which  there  was  a  chief  astronomical  assist- 
ant and  a  chief  nautical  assistant  to  the  superin- 
tendent, making  eleven  chiefs  in  all.  The  duties 
of  each  chief  were  comprehensively  described.  As 
the  entire  scientific  force  of  the  observatory  num- 
bered some  ten  or  twelve  naval  officers,  professors, 
and  assistant  astronomers,  with  six  computers,  it 
may  be  feared  that  some  of  the  nine  departments 
were  short-handed. 

In  September,  1894,  new  regulations  were  estab- 
lished by  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  which  provided 
for  an  "  Astronomical  Director,"  who  was  to  "  have 
charge  of  and  to  be  responsible  for  the  direction, 
scope,  character,  and  preparation  for  publication  of 
all  work  purely  astronomical,  which  is  performed  at 
the  Naval  Observatory."  As  there  was  no  law  for 
this  office,  it  was  filled  first  by  the  detail  of  Pro- 
fessor Harkness,  who  served  until  his  retirement  in 
1899,  then  by  the  detail  of  Professor  Brown,  who 
served  until  March,  1901. 

In  1899  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  appointed  a 
Board  of  Visitors  to  the  observatory,  comprising 


126    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

Senator  Chandler,  of  New  Hampshire,  Hon.  A.  G. 
Dayton,  House  of  Representatives,  and  Professors 
Pickering,  Comstock,  and  Hale.  This  board,  "  in 
order  to  obviate  a  criticism  that  the  astronomical 
work  of  the  observatory  has  not  been  prosecuted 
with  that  vigor  and  continuity  of  purpose  which 
should  be  shown  in  a  national  observatory,"  re- 
commended that  the  Astronomical  Director  and 
the  Director  of  the  Nautical  Almanac  should  be 
civil  officers,  with  sufficient  salaries.  A  bill  to  this 
effect  was  introduced  into  each  House  of  Congress 
at  the  next  session,  and  referred  to  the  respective 
naval  committees,  but  never  reported. 

In  1901  Congress,  in  an  amendment  to  the 
naval  appropriation  bill,  provided  a  permanent 
Board  of  Visitors  to  the  observatory,  in  whom 
were  vested  full  powers  to  report  upon  its  condition 
and  expenditures,  and  to  prescribe  its  plan  of  work. 
It  was  also  provided  in  the  same  law  that  the  super- 
intendent of  the  observatory  should,  until  further 
legislation  by  Congress,  be  a  line  officer  of  the 
navy  of  a  rank  not  below  that  of  captain.  In  the 
first  annual  report  of  this  board  is  the  following 
clause :  — 

"  We  wish  to  record  our  deliberate  and  unani- 
mous judgment  that  the  law  should  be  changed  so 
as  to  provide  that  the  official  head  of  the  observa- 
tory —  perhaps  styled  simply  the  Director  —  should 
be  an  eminent  astronomer  appointed  by  the  Presi- 
dent by  and  with  the  consent  of  the  Senate." 

Although  the  board  still  has  a  legal  existence, 


LIFE  AND  WORK  AT  AN  OBSERVATORY      127 

Congress,  in  1902,  practically  suspended  its  func- 
tions by  declining  to  make  any  appropriation  for 
its  expenses.  Moreover,  since  the  detachment  of 
Professor  Brown,  Astronomical  Director,  no  one 
has  been  appointed  to  fill  the  vacancy  thus  aris- 
ing. At  the  time  of  the  present  writing,  there- 
fore, the  entire  responsibility  for  planning  and 
directing  the  work  of  the  observatory  is  officially 
vested  in  the  naval  superintendent,  as  it  was  at 
the  old  observatory. 


GREAT   TELESCOPES   AND   THEIR    WORK 

hardly  knows  where,  in  the  history  of  science, 
to  look  for  an  important  movement  that  had  its 
effective  start  in  so  pure  and  simple  an  accident  as 
that  which  led  to  the  building  of  the  great  Wash- 
ington telescope,  and  went  on  to  the  discovery  of 
the  satellites  of  Mars.  Very  different  might  have 
been  a  chapter  of  astronomical  history,  but  for  the 
accident  of  Mr.  Cyrus  Field,  of  Atlantic  cable  fame, 
having  a  small  dinner  party  at  the  Arlington  Hotel, 
Washington,  in  the  winter  of  1870.  Among  the 
guests  were  Senators  Hamlin  and  Casserly,  Mr.  J. 
E.  Hilgard  of  the  Coast  Survey,  and  a  young  son 
of  Mr.  Field,  who  had  spent  the  day  in  seeing  the 
sights  of  Washington.  Being  called  upon  for  a 
recital  of  his  experiences,  the  youth  described  his 
visit  to  the  observatory,  and  expressed  his  surprise 
at  finding  no  large  telescope.  The  only  instrument 
they  could  show  him  was  much  smaller  and  more 
antiquated  than  that  of  Mr.  Rutherfurd  in  New 
York. 

The  guests  listened  to  this  statement  with  incre- 
dulity, and  applied  to  Mr.  Hilgard  to  know  whether 
the  visitor  was  not  mistaken,  through  a  failure  to 


GREAT  TELESCOPES  AND  THEIR  WORK       129 

find  the  great  telescope  of  the  observatory.  Mr. 
Hilgard  replied  that  the  statement  was  quite  cor- 
rect, the  observatory  having  been  equipped  at  a 
time  when  the  construction  of  great  refracting  tele- 
scopes had  not  been  commenced,  and  even  their 
possibility  was  doubted. 

"  This  ought  not  to  be/'  said  one  of  the  sen- 
ators. "Why  is  it  so?" 

Mr.  Hilgard  mentioned  the  reluctance  of  Con- 
gress to  appropriate  money  for  a  telescope. 

"  It  must  be  done/'  replied  the  senator.  "  You 
have  the  case  properly  represented  to  Congress, 
and  we  will  see  that  an  appropriation  goes  through 
the  Senate  at  least." 

It  chanced  that  this  suggestion  had  an  official 
basis  which  was  not  known  to  the  guests.  Al- 
though Mr.  Alvan  Clark  had  already  risen  into 
prominence  as  a  maker  of  telescopes,  his  genius 
in  this  direction  had  not  been  recognized  outside 
of  a  limited  scientific  circle.  The  civil  war  had 
commenced  just  as  he  had  completed  the  largest 
refracting  telescope  ever  made,  and  the  excitement 
of  the  contest,  as  well  as  the  absorbing  character  of 
the  questions  growing  out  of  the  reconstruction 
of  the  Union,  did  not  leave  our  public  men  much 
time  to  think  about  the  making  of  telescopes. 
Mr.  Clark  had,  however,  been  engaged  by  Cap- 
tain Gilliss  only  a  year  or  two  after  the  latter  had 
taken  charge  of  the  observatory,  to  come  to  Wash- 
ington, inspect  our  instruments,  and  regrind  their 
glasses.  The  result  of  his  work  was  so  striking 


130    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

to  the  observers  using  the  instruments  before  and 
after  his  work  on  them,  that  no  doubt  of  his  ability 
could  be  felt.  Accordingly,  in  preparing  items  for 
the  annual  reports  of  the  observatory  for  the  years 
1868  and  1869,  I  submitted  one  to  the  superin- 
tendent setting  forth  the  great  deficiency  of  the 
observatory  in  respect  to  the  power  of  its  telescope, 
and  the  ability  of  Mr.  Clark  to  make  good  that  de- 
ficiency. These  were  embodied  in  the  reports.  It 
was  recommended  that  authority  be  given  to  order 
a  telescope  of  the  largest  size  from  Mr.  Clark. 

It  happened,  however,  that  Secretary  Welles  had 
announced  in  his  annual  reports  as  his  policy  that  he 
would  recommend  no  estimates  for  the  enlargement 
and  improvement  of  public  works  in  his  depart- 
ment, but  would  leave  all  matters  of  this  kind  to 
be  acted  on  by  Congress  as  the  latter  might  deem 
best.  As  the  telescope  was  thrown  out  of  the 
regular  estimates  by  this  rule,  this  subject  had 
failed  to  be  considered  by  Congress. 

Now,  however,  the  fact  of  the  recommendation 
appearing  in  the  annual  report,  furnished  a  basis 
of  action.  Mr.  Hilgard  did  not  lose  a  day  in  set- 
ting the  ball  in  motion. 

He  called  upon  me  immediately,  and  I  told  him 
of  the  recommendations  in  the  last  two  reports  of 
the  superintendent  of  the  observatory.  Together 
we  went  to  see  Admiral  Sands,  who  of  course  took 
the  warmest  interest  in  the  movement,  and  ear- 
nestly promoted  it  on  the  official  side.  Mr.  Hilgard 
telegraphed  immediately  to  some  leading  men  of 


GREAT  TELESCOPES  AND  THEIR  WORK      131 

science,  who  authorized  their  signatures  to  a  peti- 
tion. In  this  paper  attention  was  called  to  the 
wants  of  the  observatory,  as  set  forth  by  the  super- 
intendent, and  to  the  eminent  ability  of  the  cele- 
brated firm  of  the  Clarks  to  supply  them.  The 
petition  was  printed  and  put  into  the  hands  of 
Senator  Hamlin  for  presentation  to  the  Senate 
only  three  or  four  days  after  the  dinner  party. 
The  appropriation  measure  was  formally  consid- 
ered by  the  Committee  on  Naval  Affairs  and  that 
on  Appropriations,  and  was  adopted  in  the  Senate 
as  an  amendment  to  the  naval  appropriation  bill 
without  opposition.  The  question  then  was  to  get 
the  amendment  concurred  in  by  the  House  of  Ke- 
presentatives.  The  session  was  near  its  close,  and 
there  was  no  time  to  do  much  work. 

Several  members  of  the  House  Committee  on 
Appropriations  were  consulted,  and  the  general 
feeling  seemed  to  be  favorable  to  the  amendment. 
Great,  therefore,  was  our  surprise  to  find  the  com- 
mittee recommending  that  the  amendment  be  not 
concurred  in.  To  prevent  a  possible  misapprehen- 
sion, I  may  remark  that  the  present  system  of  non- 
concurring  in%all  amendments  to  an  appropriation 
bill,  in  order  to  bring  the  whole  subject  into  con- 
ference, had  not  then  been  introduced,  so  that  this 
action  showed  a  real  opposition  to  the  movement. 
One  of  the  most  curious  features  of  the  case  is  that 
the  leader  in  the  opposition  was  said  to  be  Mr, 
Washburn,  the  chairman  of  the  committee,  who, 
not  many  years  later,  founded  the  Washburn  Ob- 


132    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

servatory  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin.  There 
is,  I  believe,  no  doubt  that  his  munificence  in  this 
direction  arose  from  what  he  learned  about  astron- 
omy and  telescopes  in  the  present  case. 

It  happened,  most  fortunately,  that  the  joint 
committee  of  conference  included  Drake  of  the 
Senate  and  Niblack  of  the  House,  both  earnestly 
in  favor  of  the  measure.  The  committee  recom- 
mended concurrence,  and  the  clause  authorizing 
the  construction  became  a  law.  The  price  was 
limited  to  $50,000,  and  a  sum  of  $10,000  was 
appropriated  for  the  first  payment. 

No  sooner  were  the  Clarks  consulted  than  diffi- 
culties were  found  which,  for  a  time,  threatened  to 
complicate  matters,  and  perhaps  delay  the  con- 
struction. In  the  first  place,  our  currency  was 
then  still  on  a  paper  basis.  Gold  was  at  a  pre- 
mium of  some  ten  or  fifteen  per  cent.,  and  the 
Clarks  were  unwilling  to  take  the  contract  on  any 
but  a  gold  basis.  This,  of  course,  the  Government 
could  not  do.  But  the  difficulty  was  obviated 
through  the  action  of  a  second  one,  which  equally 
threatened  delay.  Mr.  L.  J.  McCormick,  of  reap- 
ing-machine fame,  had  conceived  the  idea  of  get- 
ting the  largest  telescope  that  could  be  made.  He 
had  commenced  negotiations  with  the  firm  of  Al- 
van  Clark  &  Sons  before  we  had  moved,  and  entered 
into  a  contract  while  the  appropriation  was  still 
pending  in  Congress.  If  the  making  of  one  great 
telescope  was  a  tedious  job,  requiring  many  years 
for  its  completion,  how  could  two  be  made  ? 


GREAT  TELESCOPES  AND  THEIR  WORK       133 

I  was  charged  with  the  duty  of  negotiating  the 
government  contract  with  the  Clarks.  I  found 
that  the  fact  of  Mr.  McCormick's  contract  being 
on  a  gold  basis  made  them  willing  to  accept  one 
from  the  Government  on  a  currency  basis ;  still 
they  considered  that  Mr.  McCormick  had  the  right 
of  way  in  the  matter  of  construction,  and  refused 
to  give  precedence  to  our  instrument.  On  mature 
consideration,  however,  the  firm  reached  the  conclu- 
sion that  two  instruments  could  be  made  almost 
simultaneously,  and  Mr.  McCormick  very  gener- 
ously waived  any  right  he  might  have  had  to  pre- 
cedence in  the  matter. 

The  question  how  large  an  instrument  they 
would  undertake  was,  of  course,  one  of  the  first  to 
arise.  Progress  in  the  size  of  telescopes  had  to  be 
made  step  by  step,  because  it  could  never  be  fore- 
seen how  soon  the  limit  might  be  met ;  and  if  an 
attempt  were  made  to  exceed  it,  the  result  would 
be  not  only  failure  for  the  instrument,  but  loss  of 
labor  and  money  by  the  constructors.  The  largest 
refracting  telescope  which  the  Clarks  had  yet  con- 
structed was  one  for  the  University  of  Mississippi, 
which,  on  the  outbreak  of  the  civil  war,  had  come 
into  the  possession  of  the  Astronomical  Society  of 
Chicago.  This  would  have  been  the  last  step, 
beyond  which  the  firm  would  not  have  been  will- 
ing to  go  to  any  great  extent,  had  it  not  happened 
that,  at  this  very  time,  a  great  telescope  had  been 
mounted  in  England.  This  was  made  by  Thomas 
Cooke  &  Sons  of  York,  for  Mr.  R.  S.  Newall  of 


134    THE  REMINISCENCES   OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

Gateshead  on  Tyne,  England.  The  Clarks  could 
not,  of  course,  allow  themselves  to  be  surpassed  or 
even  equalled  by  a  foreign  constructor ;  yet  they 
were  averse  to  going  much  beyond  the  Cooke 
telescope  in  size.  Twenty-six  inches  aperture  was 
the  largest  they  would  undertake.  I  contended  as 
strongly  as  I  could  for  a  larger  telescope  than  Mr. 
McCormick's,  but  they  would  agree  to  nothing  of 
the  sort,  —  the  supposed  right  of  that  gentleman 
to  an  instrument  of  equal  size  being  guarded  as 
completely  as  if  he  had  been  a  party  to  the  nego- 
tiations. So  the  contract  was  duly  made  for  a 
telescope  of  twenty-six  inches  clear  aperture. 

At  that  time  Cooke  and  Clark  were  the  only  two 
men  who  had  ever  succeeded  in  making  refracting 
telescopes  of  the  largest  size.  But  in  order  to  ex- 
ercise their  skill,  an  art  equally  rare  and  difficult 
had  to  be  perfected,  that  of  the  glassmaker.  Or- 
dinary glass,  even  ordinary  optical  glass,  would  not 
answer  the  purpose  at  all.  The  two  disks,  one  of 
crown  glass  and  the  other  of  flint,  must  be  not 
only  of  perfect  transparency,  but  absolutely  homo- 
geneous through  and  through,  to  avoid  inequality 
of  refraction,  and  thus  cause  all  rays  passing 
through  them  to  meet  in  the  same  focus.  It  was 
only  about  the  beginning  of  the  century  that  flint 
disks  of  more  than  two  or  three  inches  diameter 
could  be  made.  Even  after  that,  the  art  was  sup- 
posed to  be  a  secret  in  the  hands  of  a  Swiss  named 
Guinand,  and  his  family.  Looking  over  the  field, 
the  Clarks  concluded  that  the  only  firm  that  could 


GREAT  TELESCOPES  AND  THEIR  WORK       135 

be  relied  on  to  furnish  the  glass  was  that  of  Chance 
&  Co.,  of  Birmingham,  England.  So,  as  soon  as 
the  contracts  were  completed,  one  of  the  Clark  firm 
visited  England  and  arranged  with  Chance  &  Co. 
to  supply  the  glass  for  the  two  telescopes.  The 
firm  failed  in  a  number  of  trials,  but  by  repeated 
efforts  finally  reached  success  at  the  end  of  a  year. 
The  glasses  were  received  in  December,  1871,  and 
tested  in  the  following  month.  A  year  and  a  half 
more  was  required  to  get  the  object  glasses  into 
perfect  shape ;  then,  in  the  spring  or  summer  of 
1873,  I  visited  Cambridge  for  the  purpose  of  test- 
ing the  glasses.  They  were  mounted  in  the  yard 
of  the  Clark  establishment  in  a  temporary  tube,  so 
arranged  that  the  glass  could  be  directed  to  any 
part  of  the  heavens. 

I  have  had  few  duties  which  interested  me  more 
than  this.  The  astronomer,  in  pursuing  his  work, 
is  not  often  filled  with  those  emotions  which  the 
layman  feels  when  he  hears  of  the  wonderful  power 
of  the  telescope.  Not  to  say  anything  so  harsh  as 
that  "  familiarity  breeds  contempt,"  we  must  admit 
that  when  an  operation  of  any  sort  becomes  a 
matter  of  daily  business,  the  sentiments  associated 
with  it  necessarily  become  dulled.  Now,  however, 
I  was  filled  with  the  consciousness  that  I  was  look- 
ing at  the  stars  through  the  most  powerful  tele- 
scope that  had  ever  been  pointed  at  the  heavens, 
and  wondered  what  mysteries  might  be  unfolded. 
The  night  was  of  the  finest,  and  I  remember,  sweep- 
ing at  random,  I  ran  upon  what  seemed  to  be  a 


136    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

little  cluster  of  stars,  so  small  and  faint  that  it 
could  scarcely  have  been  seen  in  a  smaller  instru- 
ment, yet  so  distant  that  the  individual  stars  eluded 
even  the  power  of  this  instrument.  What  cluster 
it  might  have  been  it  was  impossible  to  determine, 
because  the  telescope  had  not  the  circles  and  other 
appliances  necessary  for  fixing  the  exact  location 
of  an  object.  I  could  not  help  the  vain  longing 
which  one  must  sometimes  feel  under  such  circum- 
stances, to  know  what  beings  might  live  on  planets 
belonging  to  what,  from  an  earthly  point  of  view, 
seemed  to  be  a  little  colony  on  the  border  of  crea- 
tion itself. 

In  his  report  dated  October  9,  1873,  Admiral 
Sands  reported  the  telescope  as  "nearly  completed." 
The  volume  of  Washington  observations  showed 
that  the  first  serious  observations  made  with  it, 
those  on  the  satellites  of  Neptune,  were  commenced 
on  November  10  of  the  same  year.  Thus,  scarcely 
more  than  a  month  elapsed  from  the  time  that  the 
telescope  was  reported  still  incomplete  in  the  shop 
of  its  makers  until  it  was  in  regular  nightly  use. 

Associated  with  the  early  history  of  the  instru- 
ment is  a  chapter  of  astronomical  history  which  may 
not  only  instruct  and  amuse  the  public,  but  relieve 
the  embarrassment  of  some  astronomer  of  a  future 
generation  who,  reading  the  published  records,  will 
wonder  what  became  of  an  important  discovery. 
If  the  faith  of  the  public  in  the  absolute  certainty 
of  all  astronomical  investigation  is  thereby  impaired, 
what  I  have  to  say  will  be  in  the  interest  of  truth ; 


GREAT  TELESCOPES  AND   THEIR  WORK       137 

and  I  have  no  fear  that  our  science  will  not  stand 
the  shock  of  the  revelation.  Of  our  leading  as- 
tronomical observers  of  the  present  day  —  of  such 
men  as  Burnham  and  Barnard  —  it  may  be  safely 
said  that  when  they  see  a  thing  it  is  there.  But 
this  cannot  always  be  said  of  every  eminent  ob- 
server, and  here  is  a  most  striking  example  of  this 
fact. 

When  the  telescope  was  approaching  completion 
I  wrote  to  the  head  of  one  of  the  greatest  European 
observatories,  possessing  one  of  the  best  telescopes 
of  the  time,  that  the  first  thing  I  should  attempt 
with  the  telescope  would  be  the  discovery  of  the 
companion  of  Procyon.  This  first  magnitude  star, 
which  may  be  well  seen  in  the  winter  evenings 
above  Orion,  had  been  found  to  move  in  an  exceed- 
ingly small  orbit,  one  too  small  to  be  detected  ex- 
cept through  the  most  refined  observations  of  mod- 
ern precision.  The  same  thing  had  been  found 
in  the  case  of  Sirius,  and  had  been  traced  to  the 
action  of  a  minute  companion  revolving  around  it, 
which  was  discovered  by  the  Clarks  a  dozen  years 
before.  There  could  be  no  doubt  that  the  motion 
of  Procyon  was  due  to  the  same  cause,  but  no  one 
had  ever  seen  the  planet  that  produced  it,  though 
its  direction  from  the  star  at  any  time  could  be 
estimated. 

Now,  it  happened  that  my  European  friend,  as 
was  very  natural,  had  frequently  looked  for  this 
object  without  seeing  it.  Whether  my  letter  set 
him  to  looking  again,  or  whether  he  did  not  re- 


138    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

ceive  it  until  a  later  day,  I  do  not  know.  What  is 
certain  is  that,  in  the  course  of  the  summer,  he 
published  the  discovery  of  the  long-looked-f  or  com- 
panion, supplemented  by  an  excellent  series  of  ob- 
servations upon  it,  made  in  March  and  April. 

Of  course  I  was  a  little  disappointed  that  the 
honor  of  first  finding  this  object  did  not  belong 
to  our  own  telescope.  Still  I  was  naturally  very 
curious  to  see  it.  So,  on  the  very  first  night  on 
which  the  telescope  could  be  used,  I  sat  up  until 
midnight  to  take  a  look  at  Procyon,  not  doubting 
that,  with  the  greater  power  of  our  telescope,  it 
would  be  seen  at  the  first  glance.  To  my  great 
concern,  nothing  of  the  sort  was  visible.  But  the 
night  was  far  from  good,  the  air  being  somewhat 
thick  with  moisture,  which  gave  objects  seen  through 
it  a  blurred  appearance  ;  so  I  had  to  await  a  better 
night  and  more  favorable  conditions.  Better  nights 
came  and  passed,  and  still  not  a  trace  of  the  object 
could  be  seen.  Supposing  that  the  light  of  the 
bright  star  might  be  too  dazzling,  I  cut  it  off  with 
a  piece  of  green  glass  in  the  focus.  Still  no  com- 
panion showed  itself.  Could  it  be  that  our  instru- 
ment, in  a  more  favorable  location,  would  fail  to 
show  what  had  been  seen  with  one  so  much  smaller  ? 
This  question  I  could  not  answer,  but  wrote  to  my 
European  friend  of  my  unavailing  attempts. 

He  replied  expressing  his  perplexity  and  surprise 
at  the  occurrence,  which  was  all  the  greater  that 
the  object  had  again  been  seen  and  measured  in 
April,  1874.  A  fine-looking  series  of  observations 


GREAT  TELESCOPES  AND   THEIR  WORK       139 

was  published,  similar  to  those  of  the  preceding 
year.  What  made  the  matter  all  the  more  certain 
was  that  there  was  a  change  in  the  direction  of 
the  object  which  corresponded  very  closely  to  the 
motion  as  it  had  been  predicted  by  Auwers.  The 
latter  published  a  revision  of  his  work,  based  on 
the  new  observations. 

A  year  later,  the  parties  that  had  been  ob- 
serving the  transit  of  Venus  returned  home.  The 
head  of  one  of  them,  Professor  C.  H.  F.  Peters  of 
Clinton,  stopped  a  day  or  two  at  Washington.  It 
happened  that  a  letter  from  my  European  friend 
arrived  at  the  same  time.  I  found  that  Peters  was 
somewhat  skeptical  as  to  the  reality  of  the  object. 
Sitting  before  the  fire  in  my  room  at  the  observa- 
tory, I  read  to  him  and  some  others  extracts  from 
the  letter,  which  cited  much  new  evidence  to  show 
the  reality  of  the  discovery.  Not  only  had  several 
of  his  own  observers  seen  the  object,  but  it  had 
been  seen  and  measured  on  several  different  nights 
by  a  certain  Professor  Blank,  with  a  telescope  only 
ten  or  twelve  inches  aperture. 

"  What,"  said  Peters,  "  has  Blank  seen  it  ?  " 

"  Yes,  so  the  letter  says." 

"  Then  it  is  n't  there  !  " 

And  it  really  was  not  there.  The  maker  of  the 
discovery  took  it  all  back,  and  explained  how  he 
had  been  deceived.  He  found  that  the  telescope 
through  which  the  observations  were  made  seemed 
to  show  a  little  companion  of  the  same  sort  along- 
side of  every  very  bright  star.  Everything  was 


140    THE   REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

explained  by  this  discovery.  Even  the  seeming- 
motion  of  the  imaginary  star  during  the  twelve 
months  was  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  in  1873 
Procyon  was  much  nearer  the  horizon  when  the  ob- 
servations were  made  than  it  was  the  year  following.1 

There  is  a  sequel  to  the  history,  which  may  cause 
its  revision  by  some  astronomer  not  many  years 
hence.  When  the  great  telescope  was  mounted  at 
the  Lick  Observatory,  it  is  understood  that  Burn- 
ham  and  Barnard,  whose  eyes  are  of  the  keenest, 
looked  in  vain  for  the  companion  of  Procyon.  Yet, 
in  1895,  it  was  found  with  the  same  instrument  by 
Schaeberle,  and  has  since  been  observed  with  the 
great  Yerkes  telescope,  as  well  as  by  the  observers 
at  Mount  Hamilton,  so  that  the  reality  of  the  dis- 
covery is  beyond  a  doubt.  The  explanation  of  the 
failure  of  Burnham  and  Barnard  to  see  it  is  very 
simple  :  the  object  moves  in  an  eccentric  orbit,  so 
that  it  is  nearer  the  planet  at  some  points  of  its 
orbit  than  at  others.  It  was  therefore  lost  in  the 
rays  of  the  bright  star  during  the  years  1887—94. 
Is  it  possible  that  it  could  have  been  far  enough 
away  to  be  visible  in  1873-74  ?  I  need  scarcely 
add  that  this  question  must  be  answered  in  the 
negative,  yet  it  may  be  worthy  of  consideration, 
when  the  exact  orbit  of  the  body  is  worked  out 
twenty  or  thirty  years  hence. 

In  my  work  with  the  telescope  I  had  a  more 

1  In  justice  to  Mr.  Blank,  I  must  say  that  there  seems  to  have  been 
some  misunderstanding  as  to  his  observations.  What  he  had  really 
seen  and  observed  was  a  star  long  well  known,  much  more  distant 
from  Procyon  than  the  companion  in  question. 


GREAT  TELESCOPES  AND  THEIR  WORK       141 

definite  end  in  view  than  merely  the  possession  of  a 
great  instrument.  The  work  of  reconstructing  the 
tables  of  the  planets,  which  I  had  long  before 
mapped  out  as  the  greatest  one  in  which  I  should  en- 
gage, required  as  exact  a  knowledge  as  could  be  ob- 
tained of  the  masses  of  all  the  planets.  In  the  case 
of  Uranus  and  Neptune,  the  two  outer  planets,  this 
knowledge  could  best  be  obtained  by  observations 
on  their  satellites.  To  the  latter  my  attention  was 
therefore  directed.  In  the  case  of  Neptune,  which 
has  only  one  satellite  yet  revealed  to  human  vision, 
and  that  one  so  close  to  the  planet  that  the  obser- 
vations are  necessarily  affected  by  some  uncertainty, 
it  was  very  desirable  that  a  more  distant  one  should 
be  found  if  it  existed.  I  therefore  during  the  sum- 
mer and  autumn  of  1874  made  most  careful  search 
under  the  most  favorable  conditions.  But  no  sec- 
ond satellite  was  found.  I  was  not  surprised  to 
learn  that  the  observers  with  the  great  Lick  tele- 
scope were  equally  unsuccessful.  My  observations 
with  the  instrument  during  two  years  were  worked 
up  and  published,  and  I  turned  the  instrument  over 
to  Professor  Hall  in  1875. 

The  discovery  of  the  satellites  of  Mars  was  made 
two  years  later,  in  August,  1877.  As  no  state- 
ment that  I  took  any  interest  in  the  discovery  has 
ever  been  made  in  any  official  publication,  I  ven- 
ture, with  the  discoverer's  permission,  to  mention 
the  part  that  I  took  in  verifying  it. 

One  morning  Professor  Hall  confidentially  showed 
me  his  first  observations  of  an  object  near  Mars, 


142    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

and  asked  me  what  I  thought  of  them.  I  remarked, 
"  Why,  that  looks  very  much  like  a  satellite." 

Yet  he  seemed  very  incredulous  on  the  subject ; 
so  incredulous  that  I  feared  he  might  make  no  fur- 
ther attempt  to  see  the  object.  I  afterward  learned, 
however,  that  this  was  entirely  a  misapprehension 
on  my  part.  He  had  been  making  a  careful  search 
for  some  time,  and  had  no  intention  of  abandoning 
it  until  the  matter  was  cleared  up  one  way  or  the 
other. 

The  possibility  of  the  object  being  an  asteroid 
suggested  itself.  I  volunteered  to  test  this  ques- 
tion by  looking  at  the  ephemerides  of  all  the  small 
planets  in  the  neighborhood  of  Mars.  A  very  little 
searching  disproved  the  possibility  of  the  object 
belonging  to  this  class.  One  such  object  was  in 
the  neighborhood,  but  its  motion  was  incompatible 
with  the  measures. 

Then  I  remarked  that,  if  the  object  were  really 
a  satellite,  the  measures  already  made  upon  it,  and 
the  approximately  known  mass  of  the  planet,  would 
enable  the  motion  of  the  satellite  to  be  determined 
for  a  day  or  two.  Thus  I  found  that  on  that  night 
the  satellite  would  be  hidden  in  the  early  evening 
by  the  planet,  but  would  emerge  after  midnight. 
I  therefore  suggested  to  Professor  Hall  that,  if  it 
was  not  seen  in  the  early  evening,  he  should  wait 
until  after  midnight.  The  result  was  in  accord- 
ance with  the  prediction,  —  the  satellite  was  not 
visible  in  the  early  evening,  but  came  out  after 
midnight.  No  further  doubt  was  possible,  and  the 


GREAT  TELESCOPES  AND   THEIR  WORK      143 

discovery  was  published.  The  labor  of  searching 
and  observing  was  so  exhausting  that  Professor 
Hall  let  me  compute  the  preliminary  orbit  of  the 
satellites  from  his  early  observations. 

My  calculations  and  suggestions  lost  an  impor- 
tance they  might  otherwise  have  claimed,  for  the 
reason  that  several  clear  nights  followed.  Had 
cloudy  weather  intervened,  a  knowledge  of  when 
to  look  for  the  object  might  have  greatly  facilitated 
its  recognition. 

It  is  still  an  open  question,  perhaps,  whether  a 
great  refracting  telescope  will  last  unimpaired  for 
an  indefinite  length  of  time.  I  am  not  aware  that 
the  twin  instruments  of  Harvard  and  Pulkowa, 
mounted  in  1843,  have  suffered  from  age,  nor  am 
I  aware  that  any  of  Alvan  Clark's  instruments  are 
less  perfect  to-day  than  when  they  left  the  hands 
of  their  makers.  But  not  long  after  the  discovery 
of  the  satellites  of  Mars,  doubts  began  to  spread 
in  some  quarters  as  to  whether  the  great  Washing- 
ton telescope  had  not  suffered  deterioration.  These 
doubts  were  strengthened  in  the  following  way : 
When  hundreds  of  curious  objects  were  being  dis- 
covered in  the  heavens  here  and  there,  observers 
with  small  instruments  naturally  sought  to  find 
them.  The  result  was  several  discoveries  belong- 
ing to  the  same  class  as  that  of  the  satellite  of 
Procyon.  They  were  found  with  very  insignificant 
instruments,  but  could  not  be  seen  in  the  large 
ones.  Professor  Hall  published  a  letter  in  a  Eu- 
ropean journal,  remarking  upon  the  curious  fact 


144    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

that  several  objects  were  being  discovered  with  very 
small  instruments,  which  were  invisible  in  the  Wash- 
ington telescope.  This  met  the  eye  of  Professor 
Wolf,  a  professor  at  the  Sorbonne  in  Paris,  as  well 
as  astronomer  at  the  Paris  Observatory.  In  a  pub- 
lic lecture,  which  he  delivered  shortly  afterward, 
he  lamented  the  fact  that  the  deterioration  of  the 
Washington  telescope  had  gone  so  far  as  that,  and 
quoted  Professor  Hall  as  his  authority. 

The  success  of  the  Washington  telescope  excited 
such  interest  the  world  over  as  to  give  a  new  im- 
petus to  the  construction  of  such  instruments.  Its 
glass  showed  not  the  slightest  drawbacks  from  its 
great  size.  It  had  been  feared  that,  after  a  cer- 
tain limit,  the  slight  bending  of  the  glass  under  its 
own  weight  would  be  injurious  to  its  performance. 
Nothing  of  the  kind  being  seen,  the  C  larks  were 
quite  ready  to  undertake  much  larger  instruments. 
A  30-inch  telescope  for  the  Pulkova  Observatory 
in  Russia,  the  36-inch  telescope  of  the  Lick  Obser- 
vatory in  California,  and,  finally,  the  40-inch  of  the 
Yerkes  Observatory  in  Chicago,  were  the  outcome 
of  the  movement. 

Of  most  interest  to  us  in  the  present  connec- 
tion is  the  history  of  the  30-inch  telescope  of  the 
Pulkova  Observatory,  the  object  glass  of  which 
was  made  by  Alvan  Clark  &  Sons.  It  was,  I  think, 
sometime  in  1878  that  I  received  a  letter  from 
Otto  Struve,1  director  of  the  Pulkova  Observatory, 

1  Otto  Struve  was  a  brother  of  the  very  popular  Russian  minis- 
ter to  Washington  during  the  years  1882-92.     He  retired  from  the 


GREAT  TELESCOPES  AND  THEIR  WORK       145 

stating  that  he  was  arranging  with  his  government 
for  a  grant  of  money  to  build  one  of  the  largest 
refracting  telescopes.  In  answering  him  I  called 
his  attention  to  the  ability  of  Alvan  Clark  &  Sons 
to  make  at  least  the  object  glass,  the  most  delicate 
and  difficult  part  of  the  instrument.  The  result 
was  that,  after  fruitless  negotiations  with  European 
artists,  Struve  himself  came  to  America  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1879  to  see  what  the  American  firm  could 
do.  He  first  went  to  Washington  and  carefully  ex- 
amined the  telescope  there.  Then  he  proceeded  to 
Cambridge  and  visited  the  workshop  of  the  Clarks. 
He  expressed  some  surprise  at  its  modest  dimen- 
sions and  fittings  generally,  but  was  so  well  pleased 
with  what  he  saw  that  he  decided  to  award  them 
the  contract  for  making  the  object  glass.  He  was 
the  guest  of  the  Pickerings  at  the  Cambridge  Ob- 
servatory, and  invited  me  thither  from  where  I  was 
summering  on  the  coast  of  Massachusetts  to  assist 
in  negotiating  the  contract. 

He  requested  that,  for  simplicity  in  conference, 
the  preliminary  terms  should  be  made  with  but  a 
single  member  of  the  firm  to  talk  with.  George  B. 
Clark,  the  eldest  member,  was  sent  up  to  represent 
the  firm.  I  was  asked  to  take  part  in  the  negotia- 
tions as  a  mutual  friend  of  both  parties,  and  sug- 
gested the  main  conditions  of  the  contract.  A 

direction  of  the  Pulkowa  Observatory  about  1894.  The  official  his- 
tory of  his  negotiations  and  other  proceedings  for  the  construction 
of  the  telescope  will  be  found  in  a  work  published  in  1889  in  honor 
of  the  jubilee  of  the  observatory. 


146    THE  REMINISCENCES  OP  AN  ASTRONOMER 

summary  of  these  will  be  found  in  the  publication 
to  which  I  have  already  referred. 

There  was  one  provision  the  outcome  of  which 
was  characteristic  of  Alvan  Clark  &  Sons.  Struve, 
in  testing  some  object  glasses  which  they  had  con- 
structed and  placed  in  their  temporary  tube,  found 
so  great  physical  exertion  necessary  in  pointing  so 
rough  an  instrument  at  any  heavenly  body  with 
sufficient  exactness,  that  he  could  not  form  a  satis- 
factory opinion  of  the  object  glass.  As  he  was  to 
come  over  again  when  the  glass  was  done,  in  order 
to  test  it  preliminary  to  acceptance,  he  was  deter- 
mined that  no  such  difficulty  should  arise.  He 
therefore  made  a  special  provision  that  $1000  extra, 
to  be  repaid  by  him,  should  be  expended  in  mak- 
ing a  rough  equatorial  mounting  in  which  he  could 
test  the  instrument.  George  Clark  demurred  to 
this,  on  the  ground  that  such  a  mounting  as  was 
necessary  for  this  purpose  could  not  possibly  cost 
so  much  money.  But  Struve  persistently  main- 
tained that  one  to  cost  $1000  should  be  made. 
The  other  party  had  to  consent,  but  failed  to  carry 
out  this  provision.  The  tube  was,  indeed,  made 
large  enough  to  test  not  only  Struve's  glass  but  the 
larger  one  of  the  Lick  Observatory,  which,  though 
not  yet  commenced,  was  expected  to  be  ready  not 
long  afterward.  Yet,  notwithstanding  this  increase 
of  size,  I  think  the  extra  cost  turned  out  to  be 
much  less  than  $1000,  and  the  mounting  was  so 
rough  that  when  Struve  came  over  in  1883  to  test 
the  glass,  he  suffered  much  physical  inconvenience 


GREAT  TELESCOPES  AND  THEIR  WORK      147 

and  met,  if  my  memory  serves  me  aright,  with  a 
slight  accident,  in  his  efforts  to  use  the  rough  in- 
strument. 

In  points  like  this  I  do  not  believe  that  another 
such  business  firm  as  that  of  the  Clarks  ever  ex- 
isted in  this  country  or  any  other.  Here  is  an 
example.  Shortly  before  the  time  of  Struve's  visit, 
I  had  arranged  with  them  for  the  construction  of 
a  refined  and  complicated  piece  of  apparatus  to 
measure  the  velocity  of  light.  As  this  apparatus 
was  quite  new  in  nearly  all  its  details,  it  was  impos- 
sible to  estimate  in  advance  what  it  might  cost ;  so, 
of  course,  they  desired  that  payment  for  it  should 
be  arranged  on  actual  cost  after  the  work  was 
done.  I  assured  them  that  the  government  would 
not  enter  into  a  contract  on  such  terms.  There 
must  be  some  maximum  or  fixed  price.  This  they 
fixed  at  $2500.  I  then  arranged  with  them  that 
this  should  be  taken  as  a  maximum  and  that,  if  it 
was  found  to  cost  less,  they  should  accept  actual 
cost.  The  contract  was  arranged  on  this  basis. 
There  were  several  extras,  including  two  most  deli- 
cate reflecting  mirrors  which  would  look  flat  to  the 
eye,  but  were  surfaces  of  a  sphere  of  perhaps  four 
miles  diameter.  The  entire  cost  of  the  apparatus, 
as  figured  up  by  them  after  it  was  done,  with  these 
additions,  was  less  than  $  1500,  or  about  forty  per 
cent,  below  the  contract  limit. 

No  set  of  men  were  ever  so  averse  to  advertising 
themselves.  If  anybody,  in  any  part  of  the  world, 
wanted  them  to  make  a  telescope,  he  must  write  to 


148    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

them  to  know  the  price,  etc.  They  could  never 
be  induced  to  prepare  anything  in  the  form  of  a 
price  catalogue  of  the  instruments  they  were  pre- 
pared to  furnish.  The  history  of  their  early  efforts 
and  the  indifference  of  our  scientific  public  to  their 
skill  forms  a  mortifying  chapter  in  our  history  of 
the  middle  of  the  century.  When  Mr.  Clark  had 
finished  his  first  telescope,  a  small  one  of  four 
inches  aperture,  which  was,  I  have  no  reason  to 
doubt,  the  best  that  human  art  could  make,  he 
took  it  to  the  Cambridge  Observatory  to  be  tested 
by  one  of  the  astronomers.  The  latter  called  his 
attention  to  a  little  tail  which  the  glass  showed  as 
an  appendage  of  a  star,  and  which  was,  of  course, 
non-existent.  It  was  attributed  to  a  defect  in  the 
glass,  which  was  therefore  considered  a  failure. 
Mr.  Clark  was  quite  sure  that  the  tail  was  not 
shown  when  he  had  previously  used  the  glass,  but 
he  could  not  account  for  it  at  the  time.  He  after- 
wards traced  it  to  the  warm  air  collecting  in  the 
upper  part  of  the  tube  and  producing  an  irregular 
refraction  of  the  light.  When  this  cause  was 
corrected  the  defect  disappeared.  But  he  got  no 
further  encouragement  at  home  to  pursue  his  work. 
The  first  recognition  of  his  genius  came  from  Eng- 
land, the  agent  being  Rev.  W.  R.  Dawes,  an  en- 
thusiastic observer  of  double  stars,  who  was  greatly 
interested  in  having  the  best  of  telescopes.  Mr. 
Clark  wrote  him  a  letter  describing  a  number  of 
objects  which  he  had  seen  with  telescopes  of  his 
own  make.  From  this  description  Mr.  Dawes  saw 


GREAT  TELESCOPES  AND  THEIR  WORK       149 

that  the  instruments  must  be  of  great  excellence, 
and  the  outcome  of  the  matter  was  that  he  ordered 
one  or  more  telescopes  from  the  American  maker. 
Not  until  then  were  the  abilities  of  the  latter  recog- 
nized in  his  own  country. 

I  have  often  speculated  as  to  what  the  result 
might  have  been  had  Mr.  Clark  been  a  more  enter- 
prising man.  If,  when  he  first  found  himself  able 
to  make  a  large  telescope,  he  had  come  to  Wash- 
ington, got  permission  to  mount  his  instrument  in 
the  grounds  of  the  capitol,  showed  it  to  members 
of  Congress,  and  asked  for  legislation  to  promote 
this  new  industry,  and,  when  he  got  it,  advertised 
himself  and  his  work  in  every  way  he  could,  would 
the  firm  which  he  founded  have  been  so  little  known 
after  the  death  of  its  members,  as  it  now  unhappily 
is  ?  This  is,  perhaps,  a  rather  academic  question, 
yet  not  an  unprofitable  one  to  consider. 

In  recent  years  the  firm  was  engaged  only  to 
make  object  glasses  of  telescopes,  because  the  only 
mountings  they  could  be  induced  to  make  were 
too  rude  to  satisfy  astronomers.  The  palm  in  this 
branch  of  the  work  went  to  the  firm  of  Warner  & 
Swasey,  whose  mounting  of  the  great  Yerkes  tele- 
scope of  the  University  of  Chicago  is  the  last  word 
of  art  in  this  direction. 

During  the  period  when  the  reputation  of  the 
Cambridge  family  was  at  its  zenith,  I  was  slow  to 
believe  that  any  other  artist  could  come  up  to  their 
standard.  My  impression  was  strengthened  by  a 
curious  circumstance.  During  a  visit  to  the  Stras- 


150    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

burg  Observatory  in  1883  I  was  given  permission 
to  look  through  its  great  telescope,  which  was 
made  by  a  renowned  German  artist.  I  was  sur- 
prised to  find  the  object  glass  affected  by  so  serious 
a  defect  that  it  could  not  be  expected  to  do  any 
work  of  the  first  class.  One  could  only  wonder 
that  European  art  was  so  backward.  But,  several 
years  afterward,  the  astronomers  discovered  that, 
in  putting  the  glasses  together  after  being  cleaned, 
somebody  had  placed  one  of  them  in  the  wrong 
position,  the  surface  which  should  have  been  turned 
toward  the  star  being  now  turned  toward  the  ob- 
server. When  the  glass  was  simply  turned  over  so 
as  to  have  the  right  face  outward,  the  defect  dis- 
appeared. 


VI 

THE    TRANSITS    OF    VENUS 

IT  was  long  supposed  that  transits  of  Venus  over 
the  sun's  disk  afforded  the  only  accurate  method 
of  determining  the  distance  of  the  sun,  one  of 
the  fundamental  data  of  astronomy.  Unfortu- 
nately, these  phenomena  are  of  the  rarest.  They 
come  in  pairs,  with  an  interval  of  eight  years  be- 
tween the  transits  of  a  pair.  A  pair  occurred  in 
1761  and  1769,  and  again  in  1874  and  1882. 
Now  the  whole  of  the  twentieth  century  will  pass 
without  another  recurrence  of  the  phenomenon. 
Not  until  the  years  2004  and  2012  will  our  poster- 
ity have  the  opportunity  of  witnessing  it. 

Much  interesting  history  is  associated  with  the 
adventures  of  the  astronomers  who  took  part  in 
the  expeditions  to  observe  the  transits  of  1761  and 
1769.  In  the  almost  chronic  warfare  which  used 
to  rage  between  France  and  England  during  that 
period,  neither  side  was  willing  to  regard  as  neu- 
tral even  a  scientific  expedition  sent  out  by  the 
other.  The  French  sent  one  of  their  astronomers, 
Le  Gentil,  to  observe  the  transit  at  Pondicherry  in 
the  East  Indies.  As  he  was  nearing  his  station, 
the  presence  of  the  enemy  prevented  him  from  mak- 
ing port,  and  he  was  still  at  sea  on  the  day  of  the 


152    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

transit.  When  he  at  length  landed,  he  determined 
to  remain  until  the  transit  of  1769,  and  observe 
that.  We  must  not  suppose,  however,  that  he 
was  guilty  of  the  eccentricity  of  doing  this  with  no 
other  object  in  view  than  that  of  making  the 
observation.  He  found  the  field  open  for  profit- 
able mercantile  enterprise,  as  well  as  interesting 
for  scientific  observations  and  inquiries.  The  eight 
long  years  passed  away,  and  the  morning  of  June 
4,  1769,  found  him  in  readiness  for  his  work. 
The  season  had  been  exceptionally  fine.  On  the 
morning  of  the  transit  the  sun  shone  in  a  cloud- 
less sky,  as  it  had  done  for  several  days  previous. 
But,  alas  for  all  human  hopes  !  Just  before  Venus 
reached  the  sun,  the  clouds  gathered,  and  a  storm 
burst  upon  the  place.  It  lasted  until  the  transit 
was  over,  and  then  cleared  away  again  as  if  with 
the  express  object  of  showing  the  unfortunate  as- 
tronomer how  helpless  he  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
elements. 

The  Royal  Society  of  England  procured  a  grant 
of  £800  from  King  George  II.  for  expeditions  to 
observe  the  transit  of  1761. l  With  this  grant  the 
Society  sent  the  Eev.  Nevil  Maskelyne  to  the  island 
of  St.  Helena,  and,  receiving  another  grant,  it  was 

1  For  the  incidents  connected  with  the  English  observations  of 
this  transit,  the  author  is  indebted  to  Vice- Admiral  W.  H.  Smyth's 
curious  and  rare  book,  Speculum  Hartwellianum,  London,  1860.  It 
and  other  works  of  the  same  author  may  be  described  as  queer 
and  interesting  jumbles  of  astronomical  and  other  information, 
thrown  into  an  interesting  form  ;  and,  in  the  case  of  the  present 
work,  spread  through  a  finely  illustrated  quarto  volume  of  nearly 
five  hundred  pages. 


THE  TRANSITS  OF  VENUS  153 

used  to  dispatch  Messrs.  Mason  and  Dixon  (those 
of  our  celebrated  "  line ")  to  Bencoolen.  The 
admiralty  also  supplied  a  ship  for  conveying  the 
observers  to  their  respective  destinations.  Maske- 
lyne,  however,  would  not  avail  himself  of  this  con- 
veyance, but  made  his  voyage  on  a  private  vessel. 
Cloudy  weather  prevented  his  observations  of  the 
transit,  but  this  did  not  prevent  his  expedition  from 
leaving  for  posterity  an  interesting  statement  of 
the  necessaries  of  an  astronomer  of  that  time.  His 
itemized  account  of  personal  expenses  was  as  fol- 
lows :  — 


One  year's  board  at  St.  Helena    . 

Liquors  at  5s.  per  day  . 

Washing  at  9d.  per  day 

Other  expenses     .... 

Liquors  on  board  ship  for  six  months 


£109  10s.  Od. 

91  5  0 

13  13  9 

27      7  6 

50     0  0 


£291    16s.     3d. 


Seven  hundred  dollars  was  the  total  cost  of 
liquors  during  the  eighteen  months  of  his  absence. 
Admiral  Smyth  concludes  that  Maskelyne  "  was  not 
quite  what  is  now  ycleped  a  teetotaler."  He  was 
subsequently  Astronomer  Royal  of  England  for 
nearly  half  a  century,  but  his  published  observa- 
tions give  no  indication  of  the  cost  of  the  drinks 
necessary  to  their  production. 

Mason  and  Dixon's  expedition  met  with  a  mis- 
hap at  the  start.  They  had  only  got  fairly  into 
the  English  Channel  when  their  ship  fell  in  with  a 
French  frigate  of  superior  force.  An  action  ensued 
in  which  the  English  crew  lost  eleven  killed  and 


154    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

g  thirty-eight  wounded.  The  Frenchman  was  driven 
off,  but  the  victorious  vessel  had  to  return  to  Plym- 
outh for  repairs.  This  kind  of  a  scientific  expedi- 
tion was  more  than  the  astronomers  had  bargained 
for,  and  they  wrote  from  Plymouth  to  the  Royal 
Society,  describing  their  misfortune  and  resign- 
ing their  mission.  But  the  Council  of  the  Society 
speedily  let  them  know  that  they  were  unmoved  by 
the  misfortunes  of  their  scientific  missionaries,  and 
pointed  out  to  them  in  caustic  terms  that,  hav- 
ing solemnly  undertaken  the  expedition,  and  re- 
ceived money  on  account  of  it,  their  failure  to 
proceed  on  the  voyage  would  be  a  reproach  to  the 
nation  in  general,  and  to  the  Royal  Society  in  par- 
ticular. It  would  also  bring  an  indelible  scandal 
upon  their  character,  and  probably  end  in  their 
utter  ruin.  They  were  assured  that  if  they  per- 
sisted in  the  refusal,  they  would  be  treated  with 
the  most  inflexible  resentment,  and  prosecuted 
with  the  utmost  severity  of  the  law. 

Under  such  threats  the  unfortunate  men  could 
do  nothing  but  accept  the  situation  and  sail  again 
after  their  frigate  had  been  refitted.  When  they 
got  as  far  as  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  it  was  found 
very  doubtful  whether  they  would  reach  their  des- 
tination in  time  for  the  transit ;  so,  to  make  sure 
of  some  result  from  their  mission,  they  made  their 
observations  at  the  Cape. 

One  of  the  interesting  scraps  of  history  con- 
nected with  the  transit  of  1769  concerns  the  ob- 
servations of  Father  Maximilian  Hell,  S.  J.,  the 


THE  TRANSITS  OF  VENUS  157 

leading  astronomer  of  Vienna.  He  observed  tne 
transit  at  Wardhus,  a  point  near  the  northern 
extremity  of  Norway,  where  the  sun  did  not  set  at 
the  season  of  the  transit.  Owing  to  the  peculiar 
circumstances  under  which  the  transit  was  observed, 
—  the  ingress  of  the  planet  occurring  two  or  three 
hours  before  the  sun  approached  the  northern  hori- 
zon, and  the  end  of  the  transit  about  as  long 
afterward,  —  this  station  was  the  most  favorable 
one  on  the  globe.  Hell,  with  two  or  three  com- 
panions, one  of  them  named  Sajnovics,  went  on  his 
mission  to  this  isolated  place  under  the  auspices  of 
the  king  of  Denmark.  The  day  was  cloudless  and 
the  observations  were  made  with  entire  success. 
He  returned  to  Copenhagen,  where  he  passed  sev- 
eral months  in  preparing  for  the  press  a  complete 
account  of  his  expedition  and  the  astronomical 
observations  made  at  the  station. 

Astronomers  were  impatient  to  have  the  results 
for  the  distance  of  the  sun  worked  out  as  soon  as 
possible.  Owing  to  the  importance  of  Hell's  ob- 
servations, they  were  eagerly  looked  for.  But  he 
at  first  refused  to  make  them  known,  on  the  ground 
that,  having  been  made  under  the  auspices  of  the 
king  of  Denmark,  they  ought  not  to  be  made 
known  in  advance  of  their  official  publication  by 
the  Danish  Academy  of  Sciences.  This  reason, 
however,  did  not  commend  itself  to  the  impatient 
astronomers;  and  suspicions  were  aroused  that 
something  besides  official  formalities  was  behind 
the  delay.  It  was  hinted  that  Hell  was  waiting 


154    THE  F  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

13*  the  observations  made  at  other  stations  in  order 
that  he  might  so  manipulate  his  own  that  they 
would  fit  in  with  those  made  elsewhere.  Keports 
were  even  circulated  that  he  had  not  seen  the  tran- 
sit at  all,  owing  to  cloudy  weather,  and  that  he 
was  manufacturing  observations  in  Copenhagen. 
The  book  was,  however,  sent  to  the  printer  quite 
promptly,  and  the  insinuations  against  its  author 
remained  a  mere  suspicion  for  more  than  sixty 
years.  Then,  about  1833,  a  little  book  was  pub- 
lished on  the  subject  by  Littrow,  Director  of  the 
Vienna  Observatory,  which  excited  much  attention. 
Father  Hell's  original  journal  had  been  conveyed 
to  Vienna  on  his  return,  and  was  still  on  deposit 
at  the  Austrian  National  Observatory.  Littrow 
examined  it  and  found,  as  he  supposed,  that  the 
suspicions  of  alterations  in  observations  were  well 
founded ;  more  especially  that  the  originals  of  the 
all-important  figures  which  recorded  the  critical 
moment  of  "  contact "  had  been  scraped  out  of  the 
paper,  and  new  ones  inserted  in  their  places.  The 
same  was  said  to  be  the  case  with  many  other  im- 
portant observations  in  the  journal,  and  the  conclu- 
sion to  which  his  seemingly  careful  examination  led 
was  that  no  reliance  could  be  placed  on  the  genu- 
ineness of  Hell's  work.  The  doubts  thus  raised 
were  not  dispelled  until  another  half-century  had 
elapsed. 

In  1883  I  paid  a  visit  to  Vienna  for  the  purpose 
of  examining  the  great  telescope  which  had  just 
been  mounted  in  the  observatory  there  by  Grubb, 


THE  TRANSITS  OF  VENUS  157 

of  Dublin.  The  weather  was  so  unfavorable  that 
it  was  necessary  to  remain  two  weeks,  waiting  for 
an  opportunity  to  see  the  stars.  One  evening  I 
visited  the  theatre  to  see  Edwin  Booth,  in  his  cele- 
brated tour  over  the  Continent,  play  King  Lear 
to  the  applauding  Viennese.  But  evening  amuse- 
ments cannot  be  utilized  to  kill  time  during  the 
day.  Among  the  tasks  I  had  projected  was  that 
of  rediscussing  all  the  observations  made  on  the 
transits  of  Venus  which  had  occurred  in  1761  and 
1769,  by  the  light  of  modern  science.  As  I  have 
already  remarked,  Hell's  observations  were  among 
the  most  important  made,  if  they  were  only  gen- 
uine. So,  during  my  almost  daily  visits  to  the 
observatory,  I  asked  permission  of  Director  Weiss 
to  study  Hell's  manuscript. 

At  first  the  task  of  discovering  anything  which 
would  lead  to  a  positive  decision  on  one  side  or 
the  other  seemed  hopeless.  To  a  cursory  glance, 
the  descriptions  given  by  Littrow  seemed  to  cover 
the  ground  so  completely  that  no  future  student 
could  turn  his  doubt  into  certainty.  But  when 
one  looks  leisurely  at  an  interesting  object,  day 
after  day,  he  continually  sees  more  and  more. 
Thus  it  was  in  the  present  case.  One  of  the  first 
things  to  strike  me  as  curious  was  that  many  of 
the  alleged  alterations  had  been  made  before  the 
ink  got  dry.  When  the  writer  made  a  mistake, 
he  had  rubbed  it  out  with  his  finger,  and  made  a 
new  entry. 

The  all-important  point  was  a  certain  suspicious 


158    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

record  which  Littrow  affirmed  had  been  scraped 
out  so  that  the  new  insertion  could  be  made. 
As  I  studied  these  doubtful  figures,  day  by  day, 
light  continually  increased.  Evidently  the  heav- 
ily written  figures,  which  were  legible,  had  been 
written  over  some  other  figures  which  were  con- 
cealed beneath  them,  and  were,  of  course,  com- 
pletely illegible,  though  portions  of  them  pro- 
truded here  and  there  outside  of  the  heavy  figures. 
Then  I  began  to  doubt  whether  the  paper  had 
been  scraped  at  all.  To  settle  the  question,  I  found 
a  darkened  room,  into  which  the  sun's  rays  could 
be  admitted  through  an  opening  in  the  shutter, 
and  held  the  paper  in  the  sunlight  in  such  a  way 
that  the  only  light  which  fell  on  it  barely  grazed 
the  surface  of  the  paper.  Examining  the  sheet 
with  a  magnifying  glass,  I  was  able  to  see  the 
original  texture  of  the  surface  with  all  its  hills 
and  hollows.  A  single  glance  sufficed  to  show 
conclusively  that  no  eraser  had  ever  passed  over 
the  surface,  which  had  remained  untouched. 

The  true  state  of  the  case  seemed  to  me  almost 
beyond  doubt.  It  frequently  happened  that  the  ink 
did  not  run  freely  from  the  pen,  so  that  the  words 
had  sometimes  to  be  written  over  again.  When 
Hell  first  wrote  down  the  little  figures  on  which, 
as  he  might  well  suppose,  future  generations  would 
have  to  base  a  very  important  astronomical  ele- 
ment, he  saw  that  they  were  not  written  with  a  dis- 
tinctness corresponding  to  their  importance.  So 
he  wrote  them  over  again  with  the  hand,  and  in  the 


THE  TRANSITS  OF  VENUS  159 

spirit  of  a  man  who  was  determined  to  leave  no 
doubt  on  the  subject,  little  weening  that  the  act 
would  give  rise  to  a  doubt  which  would  endure  for 
a  century. 

This,  although  the  most  important  case  of  sup- 
posed alteration,  was  by  no  means  the  only  one. 
Yet,  to  my  eyes,  all  the  seeming  corrections  in 
the  journal  were  of  the  most  innocent  and  com- 
monplace kind,  —  such  as  any  one  may  make  in 
writing. 

Then  I  began  to  compare  the  manuscript,  page 
after  page,  with  Littrow's  printed  description.  It 
struck  me  as  very  curious  that  where  the  manu- 
script had  been  merely  retouched  with  ink  which 
was  obviously  the  same  as  that  used  in  the  original 
writing,  but  looked  a  little  darker  than  the  origi- 
nal, Littrow  described  the  ink  as  of  a  different 
color.  In  contrast  with  this,  there  was  an  impor- 
tant interlineation,  which  was  evidently  made  with 
a  different  kind  of  ink,  one  that  had  almost  a  blue 
tinge  by  comparison ;  but  in  the  description  he 
makes  no  mention  of  this  plain  difference.  I 
thought  this  so  curious  that  I  wrote  in  my  notes  as 
follows :  — 

"  That  Littrow,  in  arraying  his  proofs  of  Hell's 
forgery,  should  have  failed  to  dwell  upon  the  ob- 
vious difference  between  this  ink  and  that  with 
which  the  alterations  were  made  leads  me  to  sus- 
pect a  defect  in  his  sense  of  color." 

Then  it  occurred  to  me  to  inquire  whether,  per- 
haps, such  could  have  been  the  case.  So  I  asked 


160    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

Director  Weiss  whether  anything  was  known  as  to 
the  normal  character  of  Littrow's  power  of  distin- 
guishing colors.  His  answer  was  prompt  and  de- 
cisive. "  Oh,  yes,  Littrow  was  color  blind  to  red. 
He  could  not  distinguish  between  the  color  of  Al- 
debaran  and  that  of  the  whitest  star."  No  further 
research  was  necessary.  For  half  a  century  the 
astronomical  world  had  based  an  impression  on 
the  innocent  but  mistaken  evidence  of  a  color-blind 
man  respecting  the  tints  of  ink  in  a  manuscript. 

About  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  other 
methods  of  measuring  the  sun's  distance  began  to 
be  developed  which,  it  was  quite  possible,  might 
prove  as  good  as  the  observation  in  question.  But 
the  relative  value  of  these  methods  and  of  transits 
of  Venus  was  a  subject  on  which  little  light  could 
be  thrown  ;  and  the  rarity  of  the  latter  phenomena 
naturally  excited  universal  interest,  both  among 
the  astronomers  and  among  the  public.  For  the 
purpose  in  question  it  was  necessary  to  send  expe- 
ditions to  different  and  distant  parts  of  the  globe, 
because  the  result  had  to  depend  upon  the  times  of 
the  phases,  as  seen  from  widely  separated  stations. 

In  1869  the  question  what  stations  should  be  oc- 
cupied and  what  observations  should  be  made  was 
becoming  the  subject  of  discussion  in  Europe,  and 
especially  in  England.  But  our  country  was  still 
silent  on  the  subject.  The  result  of  continued 
silence  was  not  hard  to  foresee.  Congress  would,  at 
the  last  moment,  make  a  munificent  appropriation 
for  sending  out  parties  to  observe  the  transit.  The 


THE  TRANSITS  OF  VENUS  161 

plans  and  instruments  would  be  made  in  a  hurry, 
and  the  parties  packed  off  without  any  well-consid- 
ered ideas  of  what  they  were  to  do ;  and  the  whole 
thing  would  end  in  failure  so  far  as  results  of  any 
great  scientific  value  were  concerned. 

I  commenced  the  discussion  by  a  little  paper  on 
the  subject  in  the  "  American  Journal  of  Science, " 
but  there  was  no  one  to  follow  it  up.  So,  at  the 
spring  meeting  of  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences, 
in  1870,  I  introduced  a  resolution  for  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  committee  to  consider  the  subject  and 
report  upon  the  observations  which  should  be  made. 
This  resolution  was  adopted,  and  a  few  days  after- 
ward Professor  Henry  invited  me  to  call  at  his 
office  in  the  evening  to  discuss  with  himself  and 
Professor  Peirce,  then  superintendent  of  the  Coast 
Survey,  the  composition  of  the  committee. 

At  the  conference  I  began  by  suggesting  Pro- 
fessor Peirce  himself  for  chairman.  Naturally  this 
met  with  no  opposition  ;  then  I  waited  for  the 
others  to  go  on.  But  they  seemed  determined  to 
throw  the  whole  onus  of  the  matter  on  me.  This 
was  the  more  embarrassing,  because  I  believe  that, 
in  parliamentary  law  and  custom,  the  mover  of 
a  resolution  of  this  sort  has  a  prescribed  right  to 
be  chairman  of  the  committee  which  he  proposes 
shall  be  appointed.  If  not  chairman,  it  would  seem 
that  he  ought  at  any  rate  to  be  a  member.  But 
I  was  determined  not  to  suggest  myself  in  any 
way,  so  I  went  on  and  suggested  Admiral  Davis. 
This  nomination  was,  of  course,  accepted  without 


162    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

hesitation.  Then  I  remarked  that  the  statutes  of 
the  academy  permitted  of  persons  who  were  not 
members  being  invited  to  serve  on  a  committee, 
and  as  the  Naval  Observatory  would  naturally  take 
a  leading  part  in  such  observations  as  were  to  be 
made,  I  suggested  that  its  superintendent,  Ad- 
miral Sands,  should  be  invited  to  serve  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  committee.  "  There,"  said  Peirce,  "  we 
now  have  three  names.  Committees  of  three  are 
always  the  most  efficient.  Why  go  farther  ?  " 

I  suggested  that  the  committee  should  have  on 
it  some  one  practiced  in  astronomical  observation, 
but  he  deemed  this  entirely  unnecessary,  and  so 
the  committee  of  three  was  formed.  I  did  not  deem 
it  advisable  to  make  any  opposition  at  the  time,  be- 
cause it  was  easy  to  foresee  what  the  result  would 
be. 

During  the  summer  nothing  was  heard  of  the 
committee,  and  in  the  autumn  I  made  my  first  trip 
to  Europe.  On  my  return,  in  May,  1871,  I  found 
that  the  committee  had  never  even  held  a  meeting, 
and  that  it  had  been  enlarged  by  the  addition  of  a 
number  of  astronomers,  among  them  myself.  But, 
before  it  went  seriously  to  work,  it  was  superseded 
by  another  organization,  to  be  described  presently. 

At  that  time  astronomical  photography  was  in 
its  infancy.  Enough  had  been  done  by  Rutherfurd 
to  show  that  it  might  be  made  a  valuable  adjunct 
to  astronomical  investigation.  Might  we  not  then 
photograph  Venus  on  the  sun's  disk,  and  by  mea- 
surements of  the  plates  obtain  the  desired  result, 


THE  TRANSITS   OF  VENUS  163 

perhaps  better  than  it  could  be  obtained  by  any 
kind  of  eye  observation  ?  This  question  had  al- 
ready suggested  itself  to  Professor  Winlock,  who, 
at  the  Cambridge  Observatory,  had  designed  an 
instrument  for  taking  the  photographs.  It  con- 
sisted of  a  fixed  horizontal  telescope,  into  which 
the  rays  of  the  sun  were  to  be  thrown  by  a  re- 
flector. This  kind  of  an  instrument  had  its  origin 
in  France,  but  it  was  first  practically  applied  to 
photographing  the  sun  in  this  country.  As  what- 
ever observations  were  to  be  made  would  have  to 
be  done  at  governmental  expense,  an  appropriation 
of  two  thousand  dollars  was  obtained  from  Congress 
for  the  expense  of  some  preliminary  instruments 
and  investigations. 

Admiral  Sands,  superintendent  of  the  observa- 
tory, now  took  an  active  part  in  the  official  prepa- 
rations. It  was  suggested  to  him,  on  the  part  of 
the  academy  committee,  that  it  would  be  well  to 
join  hands  with  other  organizations,  so  as  to  have 
the  whole  affair  carried  on  with  unity  and  harmony. 
To  this  he  assented.  The  result  was  a  provision 
that  these  and  all  other  preparations  for  observing 
the  transit  of  Venus  should  be  made  under  the 
direction  of  a  commission  to  be  composed  of  the 
superintendent  of  the  Naval  Observatory,  the  super- 
intendent of  the  United  States  Coast  Survey,  the 
president  of  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences,  and 
two  professors  of  mathematics  attached  to  the  Na- 
val Observatory.  Under  this  provision  the  commis- 
sion was  constituted  as  follows :  Commodore  B.  F. 


164    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

Sands,  U.  S.  N.,  Professor  Benjamin  Peirce,  Pro- 
fessor Joseph  Henry,  Professor  Simon  Newcomb, 
Professor  William  Harkness. 

The  academy  committee  now  surrendered  its  func- 
tions to  the  commission,  and  the  preparations  were 
left  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  latter. 

So  far  as  scientific  operations  were  concerned, 
the  views  of  the  commission  were  harmonious 
through  the  whole  of  their  deliberations.  It  was 
agreed  from  the  beginning  that  the  photographic 
method  offered  the  greatest  promise  of  success. 
But  how,  with  what  sort  of  instruments,  and  on 
what  plan,  must  the  photographs  be  taken  ?  Euro- 
peans had  already  begun  to  consider  this  question, 
and  for  the  most  part  had  decided  on  using  pho- 
tographic telescopes  having  no  distinctive  feature 
specially  designed  for  the  transit.  In  fact,  one 
might  almost  say  that  the  usual  observations  with 
the  eye  were  to  be  made  on  the  photograph  instead 
of  on  the  actual  sun.  The  American  commission- 
ers were  of  opinion  that  this  would  lead  to  no- 
thing but  failure,  and  that  some  new  system  must 
be  devised. 

The  result  was  a  series  of  experiments  and  trials 
with  Professor  Winlock's  instrument  at  the  Cam- 
bridge Observatory.  The  outcome  of  the  matter 
was  the  adoption  of  his  plan,  with  three  most  im- 
portant additions,  which  I  shall  mention,  because 
they  may  possibly  yet  be  adopted  with  success  in 
other  branches  of  exact  astronomy  if  this  telescope 
is  used,  as  it  seems  likely  it  may  be. 


THE  TRANSITS  OF  VENUS  165 

The  first  feature  was  that  the  photographic  tel- 
escope should  be  mounted  exactly  in  the  meridian, 
and  that  its  direction  should  be  tested  by  having 
the  transit  instrument  mounted  in  front  of  it,  in 
the  same  line  with  it.  In  this  way  the  axis  of  the 
telescope  was  a  horizontal  north  and  south  line. 

The  next  feature  was  that,  immediately  in  front 
of  the  photographic  plate,  in  fact  as  nearly  in  con- 
tact with  it  as  possible  without  touching  it,  a  plumb 
line  of  which  the  thread  was  a  very  fine  silver  wire 
should  be  suspended,  the  bob  of  which  passed  down 
below,  and  was  immersed  in  a  vessel  of  water  to  pre- 
vent vibration.  In  this  way  the  direction  of  the 
north  and  south  line  on  the  plate  admitted  of  be- 
ing calculated  with  the  greatest  exactness,  and  the 
plumb  line  being  photographed  across  the  disk  of 
the  sun,  the  position  angle  could  be  measured  with 
the  same  precision  that  any  other  measure  could  be 
made. 

The  third  feature  was  that  the  distance  between 
the  photographic  plate  and  the  object  glass  of  the 
telescope  should  be  measured  by  a  long  iron  rod 
which  was  kept  in  position  above  the  line  of  sight 
of  the  telescope  itself.  This  afforded  the  means 
of  determining  to  what  angle  a  given  measure  on 
the  plate  would  correspond.  The  whole  arrange- 
ment would  enable  the  position  of  the  centre  of 
Venus  with  respect  to  the  centre  of  the  sun  to  be 
determined  by  purely  geometric  methods.  One 
reason  for  relying  entirely  on  this  was  that  the 
diameter  of  the  sun,  as  photographed,  would  be 


166    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

greater  the  greater  the  intensity  of  the  photo- 
graphic impression,  so  that  no  reliance  could  be 
placed  upon  its  uniformity. 

Ours  were  the  only  parties  whose  photographic 
apparatus  was  fitted  up  in  this  way.  The  French 
used  a  similar  system,  but  without  the  essentials  of 
the  plumb  line  and  the  measurement  of  the  length 
of  the  telescope.  The  English  and  Germans  used 
ordinary  telescopes  for  the  purpose. 

One  of  the  earliest  works  of  the  commission  was 
the  preparation  and  publication  of  several  papers, 
which  were  published  under  the  general  title,  "  Pa- 
/'  pers  relating  to  the  Transit  of  Venus  in  1874." 
The  first  of  these  papers  was  a  discussion  of  our 
proposed  plan  of  photographing,  in  which  the  dif- 
ficulties of  the  problem,  and  the  best  way  of  sur- 
mounting them,  were  set  forth.  The  next,  called 
Part  II.,  related  to  the  circumstances  of  the  transit, 
and  was  therefore  entirely  technical.  Part  III.  re- 
lated to  the  corrections  of  Hansen's  table  of  the 
moon,  and  was  published  as  a  paper  relating  to  the 
transit  of  Venus,  because  these  corrections  were 
essential  in  determining  the  longitudes  of  the  sta- 
tions by  observations  of  the  moon. 

In  England  the  preparations  were  left  mostly 
in  the  hands  of  Professor  Airy,  Astronomer  Royal, 
and,  I  believe,  Captain  Tupman,  who  at  least  took 
a  leading  part  in  the  observations  and  their  sub- 
sequent reduction.  In  France,  Germany,  and  Eus- 
sia,  commissions  were  appointed  to  take  charge  of 
the  work  and  plan  the  observations. 


THE  TRANSITS  OF  VENUS  167 

As  cooperation  among  the  parties  from  different 
countries  would  be  generally  helpful,  I  accepted  an 
invitation  to  attend  a  meeting  of  the  German  com- 
mission, to  be  held  at  Hanover  in  August,  1873. 
Han  sen  was  president  of  the  commission,  while 
Auwers  was  its  executive  officer.  One  of  my  main 
objects  was  to  point  out  the  impossibility  of  ob- 
taining any  valuable  result  by  the  system  of  pho- 
tographing which  had  been  proposed,  but  I  was 
informed,  in  reply,  that  the  preparations  had  ad- 
vanced too  far  to  admit  of  starting  on  a  new  plan 
and  putting  it  in  operation. 

From  the  beginning  of  our  preparations  it  began 
to  be  a  question  of  getting  from  Congress  the  large 
appropriations  necessary  for  sending  out  the  expe- 
ditions and  fitting  them  up  with  instruments.  The 
sum  of  $50,000  was  wanted  for  instruments  and 
outfit.  Hon.  James  A.  Garfield  was  then  chairman 
of  the  committee  on  appropriations.  His  principles 
and  methods  of  arranging  appropriations  for  the 
government  were,  in  some  features,  so  different 
from  those  generally  in  vogue  that  it  will  be  of 
interest  to  describe  them. 

First  of  all,  Garfield  was  rigidly  economical  in 
grants  of  money.  This  characteristic  of  a  chair- 
man of  a  committee  on  appropriations  was  almost  a 

necessary  one.     But  he  possessed  it  in  a  different 
«/  j. 

way  from  any  other  chairman  before  or  since.  The 
method  of  the  "  watch  dogs  of  the  treasury  "  who 
sometimes  held  this  position  was  to  grant  most 
of  the  objects  asked  for,  but  to  cut  down  the  esti- 


168    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

mated  amounts  by  one  fourth  or  one  third.  This 
was  a  very  easy  method,  and  one  well  fitted  to  im- 
press the  public,  but  it  was  one  that  the  executive 
officers  of  the  government  found  no  difficulty  in 
evading,  by  the  very  simple  process  of  increasing 
their  estimate  so  as  to  allow  for  the  prospective 
reduction.1 

Garfield  compared  this  system  to  ordering  cloth 
for  a  coat,  but  economizing  by  reducing  the  quan- 
tity put  into  it.  If  a  new  proposition  came  before 
him,  the  question  was  whether  it  was  advisable 
for  the  government  to  entertain  it  at  all.  He  had 
to  be  thoroughly  convinced  before  this  would  be 
done.  If  the  question  was  decided  favorably  all 
the  funds  necessary  for  the  project  were  voted. 

When  the  proposition  for  the  transit  of  Venus 
came  before  him,  he  proceeded  in  a  manner  which  I 
never  heard  of  the  chairman  of  an  appropriation 
committee  adopting  before  or  since.  Instead  of 
calling  upon  those  who  made  the  proposition  to 
appear  formally  before  the  committee,  he  asked 
me  to  dinner  with  his  family,  where  we  could  talk 
the  matter  over.  One  other  guest  was  present, 
Judge  Black  of  Pennsylvania.  He  was  a  dyed-in- 

1  "  The  War  Department  got  ahead  of  us  in  the  matter  of  fur- 
niture," said  an  officer  of  the  Navy  Department  to  me  long  after- 
wards, when  the  furniture  for  the  new  department  building  was 
being  obtained.  "  They  knew  enough  to  ask  for  a  third  more  than 
they  wanted  ;  we  reduced  our  estimate  to  the  lowest  point.  Both 
estimates  were  reduced  one  third  by  the  Appropriations  Committee. 
The  result  is  that  they  have  all  the  furniture  they  want,  while  we 
are  greatly  pinched." 


THE  TRANSITS  OF  VENUS  169 

the-wool  Democrat,  wielding  as  caustic  a  pen  as 
was  ever  dipped  into  ink,  but  was,  withal,  a  firm 
personal  friend  and  admirer  of  Garfield.  As  may 
readily  be  supposed,  the  transit  of  Venus  did  not 
occupy  much  time  at  the  table.  I  should  not  have 
been  an  enthusiastic  advocate  of  the  case  against 
opposition,  in  any  case,  because  my  hopes  of 
measuring  the  sun's  distance  satisfactorily  by  that 
method  were  not  at  all  sanguine.  My  main  inter- 
est lay  in  the  fact  that,  apart  from  this,  the  transit 
would  afford  valuable  astronomical  data  for  the 
life  work  which  I  had  mainly  in  view.  So  the 
main  basis  of  my  argument  was  that  other  nations 
were  going  to  send  out  parties ;  that  we  should 
undoubtedly  do  the  same,  and  that  they  must  be 
equipped  and  organized  in  the  best  way. 

It  appears  that  Judge  Black  was  an  absent- 
minded  man,  as  any  man  engaged  in  thought  on 
very  great  subjects,  whether  of  science,  jurispru- 
dence, or  politics,  has  the  right  to  be.  Garfield 
asked  him  whether  it  was  true  that,  on  one  occa- 
sion, when  preparing  an  argument,  and  walking 
up  and  down  the  room,  his  hat  chanced  to  drop  on 
the  floor  at  one  end  of  the  room,  and  was  per- 
sistently used  as  a  cuspidor  until  the  argument  was 
completed.  Mr.  Black  neither  affirmed  nor  denied 
the  story,  but  told  another  which  he  said  was  true. 
While  on  his  circuit  as  judge  he  had,  on  one 
occasion,  tried  a  case  of  theft  in  which  the  prin- 
cipal evidence  against  the  accused  was  the  find- 
ing of  the  stolen  article  in  his  possession.  He 


170    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

charged  the  jury  that  this  fact  was  prima  facie  evi- 
dence that  the  man  was  actually  the  thief.  When 
through  his  business  and  about  to  leave  for  home, 
he  went  into  a  jeweler's  shop  to  purchase  some 
little  trinket  for  his  wife.  The  jeweler  showed 
him  a  number  of  little  articles,  but  finding  none 
to  suit  him,  he  stepped  into  his  carriage  and  drove 
off.  In  the  course  of  the  day  he  called  on  a  street 
urchin  to  water  his  horse.  Reaching  into  his 
pocket  for  a  reward,  the  first  thing  he  got  hold  of 
was  a  diamond  ring  which  must  have  been  taken 
from  the  shop  of  the  jeweller  when  he  left  that 
morning.  "  I  wondered,"  said  the  judge,  "  how  I 
should  have  come  out  had  I  been  tried  under  my 
own  law." 

The  outcome  of  the  matter  was  that  the  appro- 
priations were  duly  made ;  first,  in  1872,  $50,000 
for  instruments,  then,  the  year  following,  $100,000 
for  the  expeditions.  In  1874,  $25,000  more  was 
appropriated  to  complete  the  work  and  return  the 
parties  to  their  homes. 

The  date  of  the  great  event  was  December  8-9, 
1874.  To  have  the  parties  thoroughly  drilled  in 
their  work,  they  were  brought  together  at  Wash- 
ington in  the  preceding  spring  for  practice  and 
rehearsal.  In  order  that  the  observations  to  be 
made  by  the  eye  should  not  be  wholly  new,  an  ap- 
paratus representing  the  transit  was  mounted  on 
the  top  of  Winder's  building,  near  the  War  Depart- 
ment, about  two  thirds  of  a  mile  from  the  observa- 
tory. When  this  was  observed  through  the  tele- 


THE  TRANSITS  OF  VENUS  171 

scope  from  the  roof  of  the  observatory,  an  artificial 
black  Venus  was  seen  impinging  upon  an  artificial 
sun,  and  entering  upon  its  disk  in  the  same  way 
that  the  actual  Venus  would  be  seen.  This  was 
observed  over  and  over  until,  as  was  supposed,  the 
observers  had  gotten  into  good  practice. 

In  order  to  insure  the  full  understanding  of 
the  photographic  apparatus,  the  instruments  were 
mounted  and  the  parties  practiced  setting  them  up 
and  going  through  the  processes  of  photograph- 
ing the  sun.  To  carry  out  this  arrangement  with 
success,  it  was  advisable  to  have  an  expert  in  astro- 
nomical photography  to  take  charge  of  the  work. 
Dr.  Henry  Draper  of  New  York  was  invited  for 
this  purpose,  and  gave  his  services  to  the  commis- 
sion for  several  weeks. 

This  transit  was  not  visible  in  the  United  States. 
It  did  not  begin  until  after  the  sun  had  set  in  San 
Francisco,  and  it  was  over  before  the  rising  sun 
next  morning  had  reached  western  Europe.  All 
the  parties  had  therefore  to  be  sent  to  the  other 
side  of  the  globe.  Three  northern  stations  were 
occupied,  —  in  China,  Japan,  and  Siberia ;  and  five 
southern  ones,  at  various  points  on  the  islands  of 
the  Pacific  and  Indian  oceans.  This  unequal  divi- 
sion was  suggested  by  the  fact  that  the  chances 
of  fair  weather  were  much  less  in  the  southern 
hemisphere  than  in  the  northern. 

The  southern  parties  were  taken  to  their  desti- 
nations in  the  U.  S.  S.  Swatara,  Captain  Ralph 
Chandler,  U.  S.  N.,  commanding.  In  astronomical 


172    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

observations  all  work  is  at  the  mercy  of  the  ele- 
ments. Clear  weather  was,  of  course,  a  necessity 
to  success  at  any  station.  In  the  present  case  the 
weather  was  on  the  whole  unpropitious.  While 
there  was  not  a  complete  failure  at  any  one  station, 
the  number  or  value  of  the  observations  was  more 
or  less  impaired  at  all.  Where  the  sky  was  nearly 
cloudless,  the  air  was  thick  and  hazy.  This  was 
especially  the  case  at  Nagasaki  and  Pekin,  where 
from  meteorological  observations  which  the  com- 
mission had  collected  through  our  consuls,  the  best 
of  weather  was  confidently  expected.  What  made 
this  result  more  tantalizing  was  that  the  very  pains 
we  had  taken  to  collect  the  data  proved,  by  chance, 
to  have  made  the  choice  worse.  For  some  time 
it  was  deliberated  whether  the  Japanese  station 
should  be  in  Nagasaki  or  Yokohama.  Consulta- 
tion with  the  best  authorities  and  a  study  of  the 
records  showed  that,  while  Yokohama  was  a  favor- 
able spot,  the  chances  were  somewhat  better  at 
Nagasaki.  So  to  Nagasaki  the  party  was  sent. 
But  when  the  transit  came,  while  the  sky  was  of 
the  best  at  Yokohama,  it  was  far  from  being  so  at 
Nagasaki. 

Something  of  the  same  sort  occurred  at  the 
most  stormy  of  all  the  southern  stations,  that  at 
Kerguelen  Island.  The  British  expeditions  had, 
in  the  beginning,  selected  a  station  on  this  island 
known  as  Christmas  Harbor.  We  learned  that  a 
firm  of  New  London,  Conn.,  had  a  whaling  station 
on  the  island.  It  was  therefore  applied  to  to  know 


THE  TRANSITS  OF  VENUS  173 

what  the  weather  chances  were  at  various  points 
in  the  island.  Information  was  obtained  from 
their  men,  and  it  was  thus  found  that  Molloy  Point, 
bad  though  the  weather  there  was,  afforded  better 
chances  than  Christmas  Harbor  ;  so  it  was  chosen. 
But  this  was  not  all ;  the  British  parties,  either  in 
consequence  of  the  information  we  had  acquired, 
or  through  what  was  learned  from  the  voyage  of 
the  Challenger,  established  their  principal  station 
near  ours.  But  it  happened  that  the  day  at  Christ- 
mas Harbor  was  excellent,  while  the  observations 
were  greatly  interfered  with  by  passing  clouds  at 
Molloy  Point. 

After  the  return  of  the  parties  sent  out  by  the 
various  nations,  it  did  not  take  long  for  the  astro- 
nomers to  find  that  the  result  was  disappointing, 
so  far,  at  least,  as  the  determination  of  the  sun's 
distance  was  concerned.  It  became  quite  clear 
that  this  important  element  could  be  better  mea- 
sured by  determining  the  velocity  of  light  and  the 
time  which  it  took  to  reach  us  from  the  sun  than 
it  could  by  any  transit  of  Venus.  It  was  there- 
fore a  question  whether  parties  should  be  sent  out 
to  observe  the  transit  of  1882.  On  this  subject 
the  astronomers  of  the  country  at  large  were  con- 
sulted. As  might  have  been  expected,  there  was 
a  large  majority  in  favor  of  the  proposition.  The 
negative  voices  were  only  two  in  number,  those  of 
Pickering  and  myself.  I  took  the  ground  that  we 
should  make  ample  provisions  for  observing  it  at 
various  stations  in  our  own  country,  where  it  would 


174    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

now  be  visible,  but  that,  in  view  of  the  certain 
failure  to  get  a  valuable  result  for  the  distance  of 
the  sun  by  this  method,  it  was  not  worth  while  for 
us  to  send  parties  to  distant  parts  of  the  world. 
I  supposed  the  committee  on  appropriations  might 
make  careful  inquiry  into  the  subject  before  mak- 
ing the  appropriation,  but  a  representation  of  the 
case  was  all  they  asked  for,  and  $10,000  was  voted 
for  improving  the  instruments  and  $75,000  for 
sending  out  parties. 

Expeditions  being  thus  decided  upon,  I  volun- 
teered to  take  charge  of  that  to  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope.  The  scientific  personnel  of  my  party  com- 
prised an  officer  of  the  army  engineers,  one  of  the 
navy,  and  a  photographer.  The  former  were  Lieu- 
tenant Thomas  L.  Casey,  Jr.,  Corps  of  Engineers, 
U.  S.  A.,  and  Lieutenant  J.  H.  L.  Holcombe, 
U.  S.  N.  We  took  a  Cunard  steamer  for  Liver- 
pool about  the  middle  of  September,  1882,  and 
transported  our  instruments  by  rail  to  Southamp- 
ton, there  to  have  them  put  on  the  Cape  steamship. 
At  Liverpool  I  was  guilty  of  a  remissness  which 
might  have  caused  much  trouble.  Our  apparatus 
and  supplies,  in  a  large  number  of  boxes,  were  all 
gathered  and  piled  in  one  place.  I  sent  one  of  my 
assistants  to  the  point  to  see  that  it  was  so  collected 
that  there  should  be  no  possibility  of  mistake  in 
getting  it  into  the  freight  car  designed  to  carry  it 
to  Southampton,  but  did  not  require  him  to  stay 
there  and  see  that  all  was  put  on  board.  When  the 
cases  reached  Southampton  it  was  found  that  one 


THE  TRANSITS  OF  VENUS  175 

was  missing.  It  was  one  of  the  heaviest  of  the 
lot,  containing  the  cast-iron  pier  on  which  the 
photoheliograph  was  to  be  mounted.  While  it 
was  possible  to  replace  this  by  something  else,  such 
a  course  would  have  been  inconvenient  and  per- 
haps prejudicial.  The  steamer  was  about  to  sail, 
but  would  touch  at  Plymouth  next  day.  Only  one 
resource  was  possible.  I  telegraphed  the  mistake 
to  Liverpool  and  asked  that  the  missing  box  be 
sent  immediately  by  express  to  Plymouth.  We  had 
the  satisfaction  of  seeing  it  come  on  board  with  the 
mail  just  as  the  steamer  was  about  to  set  sail. 

We  touched  first  at  Madeira,  and  then  at  Ascen- 
sion Island,  the  latter  during  the  night.  One  of 
the  odd  things  in  nomenclature  is  that  this  island,  a 
British  naval  station,  was  not  called  such  officially, 
but  was  a  "  tender  to  Her  Majesty's  ship  Flora," 
I  believe.  It  had  become  astronomically  famous  a 
few  years  before  by  Gill's  observations  of  the  posi- 
tion of  Mars  to  determine  the  solar  parallax. 

We  touched  six  hours  at  St.  Helena,  enough  to 
see  the  place,  but  scarcely  enough  to  make  a  visit 
to  the  residence  of  Napoleon,  even  had  we  desired 
to  see  it.  The  little  town  is  beautifully  situated, 
and  the  rocks  around  are  very  imposing.  My  most 
vivid  recollection  is,  however,  of  running  down 
from  the  top  of  a  rock  some  six  hundred  or  eight 
hundred  feet  high,  by  a  steep  flight  of  steps,  with- 
out stopping,  or  rather  of  the  consequences  of  this 
imprudent  gymnastic  performance.  I  could  scarcely 
move  for  the  next  three  days. 


176    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

Cape  Town  was  then  suffering  from  an  epi- 
demic of  smallpox,  mostly  confined  to  the  Malay 
population,  but  causing  some  disagreeable  results 
to  travelers.  Our  line  of  ships  did  not  terminate 
their  voyage  at  the  Cape,  but  proceeded  thence  to 
other  African  ports  east  of  the  Cape.  Here  a 
rigid  quarantine  had  been  established,  and  it  was 
necessary  that  the  ships  touching  at  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope  should  have  had  no  communication 
with  the  shore.  Thus  it  happened  that  we  found, 
lying  in  the  harbor,  the  ship  of  our  line  which 
had  preceded  us,  waiting  to  get  supplies  from 
us,  in  order  that  it  might  proceed  on  its  voyage. 
Looking  at  a  row-boat  after  we  had  cast  anchor, 
we  were  delighted  to  see  two  faces  which  I  well 
knew :  those  of  David  Gill,  astronomer  of  the  Cape 
Observatory,  and  Dr.  W.  L.  Elkin,  now  director 
of  the  Yale  Observatory.  The  latter  had  gone  to 
the  Cape  as  a  volunteer  observer  with  Gill,  their 
work  being  directed  mostly  to  parallaxes  of  stars 
too  far  south  to  be  well  observed  in  our  latitude. 
Our  friends  were  not,  however,  even  allowed  to 
approach  the  ship,  for  fear  of  the  smallpox,  the 
idea  appearing  to  be  that  the  latter  might  be  com- 
municated by  a  sort  of  electric  conduction,  if  the 
boat  and  the  ship  were  allowed  to  come  into  con- 
tact, so  we  had  to  be  put  ashore  without  their  aid. 

We  selected  as  our  station  the  little  town  of 
Wellington,  some  forty  miles  northeast  of  Cape 
Town.  The  weather  chances  were  excellent  any- 
where, but  here  they  were  even  better  than  at  the 


THE  TRANSITS  OF  VENUS  177 

Cape.  The  most  interesting  feature  of  the  place 
was  what  we  might  call  an  American  young  ladies' 
school.  The  Dutch  inhabitants  of  South  Africa 
are  imbued  with  admiration  of  our  institutions, 
and  one  of  their  dreams  is  said  to  be  a  United 
States  of  South  Africa  modeled  after  our  own  re- 
public. Desiring  to  give  their  daughters  the  best 
education  possible,  they  secured  the  services  of 
Miss  Ferguson,  a  well-known  New  England  teacher, 
to  found  a  school  on  the  American  model.  We 
established  our  station  in  the  grounds  of  this 
school. 

The  sky  on  the  day  of  the  transit  was  simply  per- 
fect. Notwithstanding  the  intensity  of  the  sun's 
rays,  the  atmosphere  was  so  steady  that  I  have 
never  seen  the  sun  to  better  advantage.  So  all 
our  observations  were  successful. 

On  our  departure  we  left  two  iron  pillars,  on 
which  our  apparatus  for  photographing  the  sun  was 
mounted,  firmly  imbedded  in  the  ground,  as  we  had 
used  them.  Whether  they  will  remain  there  until 
the  transit  of  2004, 1  do  not  know,  but  cannot  help 
entertaining  a  sentimental  wish  that,  when  the  time 
of  that  transit  arrives,  the  phenomenon  will  be  ob- 
served from  the  same  station,  and  the  pillars  be 
found  in  such  a  condition  that  they  can  again  be 
used. 

All  the  governments,  except  our  own,  which  ob- 
served the  two  transits  of  Venus  on  a  large  scale 
long  ago  completed  the  work  of  reduction,  and 
published  the  observations  in  full.  On  our  own 


178    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

part  we  have  published  a  preliminary  discussion  of 
some  observations  of  the  transit  of  1874.  Of  that 
of  1882  nothing  has,  I  believe,  been  published  ex- 
cept some  brief  statements  of  results  of  the  photo- 
graphs, which  appeared  in  an  annual  report  of  the 
Naval  Observatory.  Having  need  in  my  tables  of  the 
planets  of  the  best  value  of  the  solar  parallax  that 
could  be  obtained  by  every  method,  I  worked  up  all 
the  observations  of  contacts  made  by  the  parties  of 
every  country,  but,  of  course,  did  not  publish  our 
own  observations.  Up  to  the  present  time,  twenty- 
eight  years  after  the  first  of  the  transits,  and  twenty 
years  after  the  second,  our  observations  have  never 
been  officially  published  except  to  the  extent  I  have 
stated.  The  importance  of  the  matter  may  be 
judged  by  the  fact  that  the  government  expended 
$375,000  on  these  observations,  not  counting  the 
salaries  of  its  officers  engaged  in  the  work,  or  the 
cost  of  sailing  a  naval  ship:  As  I  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  commission  charged  with  the  work,  and 
must  therefore  bear  my  full  share  of  the  responsi- 
bility for  this  failure,  I  think  it  proper  to  state 
briefly  how  it  happened,  hoping  thereby  to  enforce 
the  urgent  need  of  a  better  organization  of  some 
of  our  scientific  work. 

The  work  of  reducing  such  observations,  editing 
and  preparing  them  for  the  press,  involved  much 
computation  to  be  done  by  assistants,  and  I,  being 
secretary  of  the  commission,  was  charged  with  the 
execution  of  this  part  of  the  work.  The  appropri- 
ations made  by  Congress  for  the  observations  were 


THE  TRANSITS  OF  VENUS  179 

considered  available  for  the  reduction  also.  There 
was  a  small  balance  left  over,  and  I  estimated  that 
$3000  more  would  suffice  to  complete  the  work. 
This  was  obtained  from  Congress  in  the  winter  of 
1875. 

About  the  end  of  1876  I  was  surprised  to  re- 
ceive from  the  Treasury  Department  a  notification 
that  the  appropriation  for  the  transit  of  Venus  was 
almost  exhausted,  when  according  to  my  accounts, 
more  than  $3000  still  remained.  On  inquiry  it  was 
found  that  the  sum  appropriated  about  two  years 
before  had  never  been  placed  to  the  credit  of  the 
transit  of  Venus  commission,  having  been,  in  fact, 
inserted  in  a  different  appropriation  bill  from  that 
which  contained  the  former  grant. 

I,  as  secretary  of  the  commission,  made  an  appli- 
cation to  the  Treasury  Department  to  have  the  sum, 
late  though  it  was,  placed  to  our  credit.  But  the 
money  had  been  expended  and  nothing  could  be 
now  done  in  the  matter.1  The  computers  had  there- 
fore to  be  discharged  and  the  work  stopped  until 
a  new  appropriation  could  be  obtained  from  Con- 
gress. 

During  the  session  of  1876-77,  $5000  was  there- 
fore asked  for  for  the  reduction  of  the  observations. 
It  was  refused  by  the  House  committee  on  appro- 
priations. I  explained  the  matter  to  Mr.  Julius  H. 

1  As  this  result  would  not  be  possible  under  our  present  system, 
which  was  introduced  by  the  first  Cleveland  administration,  I  might 
remark  that  it  resulted  from  a  practice  on  the  part  of  the  Treasury 
of  lumping  appropriations  on  its  books  in  order  to  simplify  the  keep- 
ing of  the  accounts. 


180    THE  REMINISCENCES   OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

Seelye,  formerly  president  of  Amherst  College,  who 
was  serving  a  term  in  Congress.  He  took  much 
interest  in  the  subject,  and  moved  the  insertion  of 
the  item  when  the  appropriation  bill  came  up  be- 
fore the  House.  Mr.  Atkins,  chairman  of  the  ap- 
propriations committee,  opposed  the  motion,  main- 
taining that  the  Navy  Department  had  under  its 
orders  plenty  of  officers  who  could  do  the  work,  so 
there  was  no  need  of  employing  the  help  of  com- 
puters. But  the  House  took  a  different  view,  and 
inserted  the  item  over  the  heads  of  the  appropria- 
tions committee. 

Now  difficulties  incident  to  the  divided  responsi- 
bility of  the  commission  were  met  with.  During 
the  interim  between  the  death  of  Admiral  Davis,  in 
February,  1877,  and  the  coming  of  Admiral  John 
Rodgers  as  his  successor,  a  legal  question  arose  as 
to  the  power  of  the  commission  over  its  members. 
The  work  had  to  stop  until  it  was  settled,  and  I 
had  to  discharge  my  computers  a  second  time. 
After  it  was  again  started  I  discovered  that  I 
did  not  have  complete  control  of  the  funds  appro- 
priated for  reducing  the  observations.  The  result 
was  that  the  computers  had  to  be  discharged  and 
the  work  stopped  for  the  third  time.  This  occurred 
not  long  before  I  started  out  to  observe  the  transit 
in  1882.  For  me  the  third  hair  was  the  one  that 
broke  the  camel's  back.  I  turned  the  papers  and 
work  over  to  Professor  Harkness,  by  whom  the 
subject  was  continued  until  he  was  made  astro- 
nomical director  of  the  Naval  Observatory  in  1894. 


THE  TRANSITS  OF  VENUS  181 

I  do  not  know  that  the  commission  was  ever  for- 
mally dissolved.  Practically,  however,  its  functions 
may  be  said  to  have  terminated  in  the  year  1886, 
when  a  provision  of  law  was  enacted  by  which  all 
its  property  was  turned  over  to  the  Secretary  of  the 
Navy. 

What  the  present  condition  of  the  work  may  be, 
and  how  much  of  it  is  ready  for  the  press,  I  cannot 
say.  My  impression  is  that  it  is  in  that  condition 
known  in  household  language  as  "  all  done  but 
finishing."  Whether  it  will  ever  appear  is  a  ques- 
tion for  the  future.  All  the  men  who  took  part  in 
it  or  who  understood  its  details  are  either  dead 
or  on  the  retired  list,  and  it  is  difficult  for  one  not 
familiar  with  it  from  the  beginning  to  carry  it  to 
completion. 


VII 

THE   LICK   OBSERVATORY 

IN  the  wonderful  development  of  astronomical  re- 
search in  our  country  during  the  past  twenty  years, 
no  feature  is  more  remarkable  than  the  rise  on  an 
isolated  mountain  in  California  of  an  institution 
which,  within  that  brief  period,  has  become  one 
of  the  foremost  observatories  of  the  world.  As 
everything  connected  with  the  early  history  of  such 
an  institution  must  be  of  interest,  it  may  not  be 
amiss  if  I  devote  a  few  pages  to  it. 

In  1874  the  announcement  reached  the  public 
eye  that  James  Lick,  an  eccentric  and  wealthy  Cal- 
if ornian,  had  given  his  entire  fortune  to  a  board  of 
trustees  to  be  used  for  certain  public  purposes,  one 
of  which  was  the  procuring  of  the  greatest  and 
most  powerful  telescope  that  had  ever  been  made. 
There  was  nothing  in  the  previous  history  of  the 
donor  that  could  explain  his  interest  in  a  great  tel- 
escope. I  am  sure  he  had  never  looked  through  a 
telescope  in  his  life,  and  that  if  he  had,  and  had 
been  acquainted  with  the  difficulties  of  an  observa- 
tion with  it,  it  is  quite  likely  the  Lick  Observatory 
would  never  have  existed.  From  his  point  of  view, 
as,  indeed,  from  that  of  the  public  very  generally, 


THE  LICK  OBSERVATORY  183 

the  question  of  telescopic  vision  is  merely  one  of 
magnifying  power.  By  making  an  instrument  large 
and  powerful  enough  we  may  hope  even  to  discover 
rational  beings  on  other  planets. 

The  president  of  the  first  board  of  trustees  was 
Mr.  D.  0.  Mills,  the  well-known  capitalist,  who  had 
been  president  of  the  Bank  of  California.  Mr. 
Mills  visited  Washington  in  the  summer  or  autumn 
of  1874,  and  conferred  with  the  astronomers  there, 
among  others  myself,  on  the  question  of  the  pro- 
posed telescope.  I  do  not  think  that  an  observa- 
tory properly  so  called  was,  at  first,  in  Mr.  Lick's 
mind ;  all  he  wanted  was  an  immense  telescope. 

The  question  was  complicated  by  the  result  of 
some  correspondence  between  Mr.  Lick  and  the 
firm  of  Alvan  Clark  &  Sons.  The  latter  had  been 
approached  to  know  the  cost  of  constructing  the 
desired  telescope.  Without  making  any  exact  esti- 
mate, or  deciding  upon  the  size  of  the  greatest 
telescope  that  could  be  constructed,  they  named  a 
very  large  sum,  $200,000  I  believe,  as  the  amount 
that  could  be  put  into  the  largest  telescope  it  was 
possible  to  make.  Mr.  Lick  deemed  this  estimate 
exorbitant,  and  refused  to  have  anything  more  to 
do  with  the  firm.  The  question  now  was  whether 
any  one  else  besides  the  Clarks  could  make  what 
was  wanted. 

I  suggested  to  Mr.  Mills  that  this  question  was 
a  difficult  one  to  answer,  as  no  European  maker 
was  known  to  rival  the  Clarks  in  skill  in  the  desired 
direction.  It  was  impossible  to  learn  what  could 


184    THE  REMINISCENCES   OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

be  done  in  Europe  except  by  a  personal  visit  to  the 
great  optical  workshops  and  a  few  observatories 
where  great  telescopes  had  been  mounted. 

I  also  suggested  that  a  director  of  the  new  estab- 
lishment should  be  chosen  in  advance  of  beginning 
active  work,  so  that  everything  should  be  done  under 
his  supervision.  As  such  director  I  suggested  that 
very  likely  Professor  Holden,  then  my  assistant  on 
the  great  equatorial,  might  be  well  qualified.  At 
least  I  could  not,  at  the  moment,  name  any  one  I 
thought  would  be  decidedly  preferable  to  him. 
I  suggested  another  man  as  possibly  available,  but 
remarked  that  he  had  been  unfortunate.  "  I  don't 
want  to  have  anything  to  do  with  unfortunate 
men,"  was  the  reply.  The  necessity  of  choosing 
a  director  was  not,  however,  evident,  but  commu- 
nication was  opened  with  Professor  Holden  as  well 
as  myself  to  an  extent  that  I  did  not  become 
aware  of  until  long  afterward. 

The  outcome  of  Mr.  Mills's  visit  was  that  in 
December,  1874,  I  was  invited  to  visit  the  Euro- 
pean workshops  as  an  agent  of  the  Lick  trustees, 
with  a  view  of  determining  whether  there  was  any 
chance  of  getting  the  telescope  made  abroad.  The 
most  difficult  and  delicate  question  arose  in  the 
beginning ;  shall  the  telescope  be  a  reflector  or  a 
refractor?  The  largest  and  most  powerful  one 
that  could  be  made  would  be,  undoubtedly,  a  re- 
flector. And  yet  reflecting  telescopes  had  not, 
as  a  rule,  been  successful  in  permanent  practi- 
cal work.  The  world's  work  in  astronomy  was 


THE  LICK  OBSERVATORY  185 

done  mainly  with  refracting  telescopes.  This  was 
not  due  to  any  inherent  superiority  in  the  latter, 
but  to  the  mechanical  difficulties  incident  to  so 
supporting  the  great  mirror  of  a  reflecting  tele- 
scope- that  it  should  retain  its  figure  in  all  posi- 
tions. Assuming  that  the  choice  must  fall  upon  a 
refractor,  unless  proper  guarantees  for  one  of  the 
other  kind  should  be  offered,  one  of  my  first  visits 
was  to  the  glass  firm  of  Chance  &  Co.  in  Birming- 
ham, who  had  cast  the  glass  disks  for  the  Wash- 
ington telescope.  This  firm  and  Feil  of  Paris  were 
the  only  two  successful  makers  of  great  optical 
disks  in  the  world.  Chance  &  Co.  offered  the  best 
guarantees,  while  Feil  had  more  enthusiasm  than 
capital,  although  his  skill  was  of  the  highest.  An- 
other Paris  firm  was  quite  willing  to  undertake  the 
completion  of  the  telescope,  but  it  was  also  evi- 
dent that  its  price  was  suggested  by  the  supposed 
liberality  of  an  eccentric  California  millionaire.  I 
returned  their  first  proposal  with  the  assurance  that 
it  would  be  useless  to  submit  it.  A  second  was 
still  too  high  to  offer  any  inducement  over  the 
American  firm.  Besides,  there  was  no  guarantee 
of  the  skill  necessary  to  success. 

In  Germany  the  case  was  still  worse.  The  most 
renowned  firm  there,  the  successors  of  Fraunho- 
f er,  were  not  anxious  to  undertake  such  a  contract. 
The  outcome  of  the  matter  was  that  Howard  Grubb, 
of  Dublin,  was  the  only  man  abroad  with  whom 
negotiations  could  be  opened  with  any  chance  of 
success.  He  was  evidently  a  genius  who  meant 


186    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

business.  Yet  he  had  not  produced  a  work  which 
would  justify  unlimited  confidence  in  his  ability  to 
meet  Mr.  Lick's  requirements.  The  great  Vienna 
telescope  which  he  afterward  constructed  was  then 
only  being  projected. 

Not  long  after  my  return  with  this  not  very  en- 
couraging report,  Mr.  Lick  suddenly  revoked  his 
gift,  through  some  dissatisfaction  with  the  proceed- 
ings of  his  trustees,  and  appointed  a  new  board  to 
carry  out  his  plans.  This  introduced  legal  compli- 
cations, which  were  soon  settled  by  a  friendly  suit 
on  the  part  of  the  old  trustees,  asking  authority 
to  transfer  their  trust.  The  president  of  the  new 
board  was  Mr.  Richard  S.  Floyd,  a  member  of  the 
well-known  Virginia  family  of  that  name,  and  a 
graduate,  or  at  least  a  former  cadet,  of  the  United 
States  Naval  Academy.  I  received  a  visit  from  him 
on  his  first  trip  to  the  East  in  his  official  capacity, 
early  in  1876,  I  believe.  Some  correspondence 
with  Mr.  Lick's  home  representative  ensued,  of 
which  the  most  interesting  feature  was  the  donor's 
idea  of  a  telescope.  He  did  not  see  why  so  elabo- 
rate and  expensive  a  mounting  as  that  proposed 
was  necessary,  and  thought  that  the  object  glass 
might  be  mounted  on  the  simplest  kind  of  a  pole 
or  tower  which  would  admit  of  its  having  the  re- 
quisite motions  in  connection  with  the  eyepiece. 
Whether  I  succeeded  in  convincing  him  of  the 
impracticability  of  his  scheme,  I  do  not  know,  as 
he  died  before  the  matter  was  settled. 

This  left   the  trustees   at  liberty  to  build  and 


THE  LICK  OBSERVATORY  187 

organize  the  institution  as  they  deemed  best.  It 
was  speedily  determined  that  the  object  glass  should 
be  shaped  by  the  Clarks,  who  should  also  be  re- 
sponsible for  getting  the  rough  disks.  This  proved 
to  be  a  very  difficult  task.  Chance  &  Co.  were 
unwilling  to  undertake  the  work  and  Feil  had 
gone  out  of  business,  leaving  the  manufacture  in 
the  hands  of  his  son.  The  latter  also  failed,  and 
the  father  had  to  return.  Ultimately  the  establish- 
ment was  purchased  by  Mantois,  whose  success  was 
remarkable.  He  soon  showed  himself  able  to  make 
disks  not  only  of  much  larger  size  than  had  ever 
before  been  produced,  but  of  a  purity  and  transpa- 
rency which  none  before  him  had  ever  approached. 
He  died  in  1899  or  1900,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped 
that  his  successor  will  prove  to  be  his  equal. 

The  original  plan  of  Mr.  Lick  had  been  to  found 
the  observatory  on  the  borders  of  Lake  Tahoe,  but 
he  grew  dissatisfied  with  this  site  and,  shortly  be- 
fore his  death,  made  provisional  arrangements  for 
placing  it  on  Mount  Hamilton.  In  1879  prepara- 
tions had  so  far  advanced  that  it  became  necessary 
to  decide  whether  this  was  really  a  suitable  loca- 
tion. I  had  grave  doubts  on  the  subject.  A 
mountain  side  is  liable  to  be  heated  by  the  rays  of 
the  sun  during  the  day,  and  a  current  of  warm  air 
which  would  be  fatal  to  the  delicacy  of  astronomi- 
cal vision  is  liable  to  rise  up  the  sides  and  envel- 
ope the  top  of  the  mountain.  I  had  even  been 
informed  that,  on  a  summer  evening,  a  piece  of 
paper  let  loose  on  the  mountain  top  would  be 


188    THE  REMINISCENCES   OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

carried  up  into  the  air  by  the  current.  But,  after 
all,  the  proof  of  the  pudding  is  in  the  eating,  and 
Holden  united  with  me  in  advising  that  an  expe- 
rienced astronomer  with  a  telescope  should  be 
stationed  for  a  few  weeks  on  the  mountain  in 
order  to  determine,  by  actual  trial,  what  the  condi- 
tions of  seeing  were.  The  one  best  man  for  this 
duty  was  S.  TV.  Burnham  of  Chicago,  who  had 
already  attained  a  high  position  in  the  astronomi- 
cal world  by  the  remarkable  skill  shown  in  his 
observations  of  double  stars.  So,  in  August,  1879, 
huts  were  built  on  the  mountain,  and  Burnham 
was  transported  thither  with  his  telescope.  I  fol- 
lowed personally  in  September. 

We  passed  three  nights  on  the  mountain  with 
Captain  Floyd,  studying  the  skies  by  night  and 
prospecting  around  in  the  daytime  to  see  whether 
the  mountain  top  or  some  point  in  the  neighboring 
plateau  offered  the  best  location  for  the  observa- 
tory. So  far  as  the  atmospheric  conditions  were 
concerned,  the  results  were  beyond  our  most  san- 
.guine  expectations.  What  the  astronomer  wants 
is  not  merely  a  transparent  atmosphere,  but  one  of 
such  steadiness  that  the  image  of  a  star,  as  seen 
in  a  telescope,  may  not  be  disturbed  by  movements 
of  the  air  which  are  invisible  to  the  naked  eye. 

Burnham  found  that  there  were  forty-two  first- 
class  nights  during  his  stay,  and  only  seven  which 
would  be  classed  as  low  as  medium.  In  the  East 
the  number  of  nights  which  he  would  call  first- 
class  are  but  few  in  a  year,  and  even  the  medium 


THE  LICK  OBSERVATORY  189 

night  is  by  no  means  to  be  counted  on.  No  fur- 
ther doubt  could  remain  that  the  top  of  the  moun- 
tain was  one  of  the  finest  locations  in  the  world 
for  an  astronomical  observatory,  and  it  was  defi- 
nitely selected  without  further  delay. 

Sometime  after  my  return  Mr.  Floyd  sent  me  a 
topographical  sketch  of  the  mountain,  with  a  re- 
quest to  prepare  preliminary  plans  for  the  obser- 
vatory. As  I  had  always  looked  on  Professor 
Holden  as  probably  the  coming  director,  I  took 
him  into  consultation,  and  the  plans  were  made 
under  our  joint  direction  in  my  office.  The  posi- 
tion and  general  arrangement  of  the  buildings  re- 
main, so  far  as  I  am  aware,  much  as  then  planned ; 
the  principal  change  being  the  omission  of  a  long 
colonnade  extending  over  the  whole  length  of  the 
main  front  in  order  to  secure  an  artistic  and  im- 
posing aspect  from  the  direction  of  San  Jose. 

In  the  summer  of  1885,  as  I  was  in  New  York 
in  order  to  sail  next  day  to  Europe,  I  was  surprised 
by  a  visit  from  Judge  Hagar,  a  prominent  citizen 
of  San  Francisco,  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Ke- 
gents  of  the  University  of  California,  and  an  active 
politician,  who  soon  afterward  became  collector  of 
the  port,  to  consult  me  on  the  question  of  choos- 
ing Professor  Holden  as  president  of  the  univer- 
sity. This  was  not  to  interfere  with  his  becoming 
director  of  the  Lick  Observatory  whenever  that 
institution  should  be  organized,  but  was  simply  a 
temporary  arrangement  to  bridge  over  a  difficulty. 

In  the  autumn  of  1887  I  received  an  invitation 


190    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

from  Mr.  Floyd  to  go  with  him  to  Cleveland,  in 
order  to  inspect  the  telescope,  which  was  now  nearly 
ready  for  delivery.  It  was  mounted  in  the  year 
following,  and  then  Holden  stepped  from  the  presi- 
dency of  the  university  into  the  directorship  of 
the  observatory. 

The  institution  made  its  mark  almost  from  the 
beginning.  I  know  of  no  example  in  the  world 
in  which  young  men,  most  of  whom  were  begin- 
ners, attained  such  success  as  did  those  whom 
Holden  collected  around  him.  The  names  of  Bar- 
nard, Campbell,  and  Schaeberle  immediately  became 
well  known  in  astronomy,  owing  to  the  excellence 
of  their  work.  Burnham  was,  of  course,  no  be- 
ginner, being  already  well  known,  nor  was  Keeler, 
who  was  also  on  the  staff. 

In  a  few  years  commenced  the  epoch-making 
work  of  Campbell,  in  the  most  refined  and  difficult 
problem  of  observational  astronomy,  —  that  of  the 
measurement  of  the  motion  of  stars  to  or  from 
us.  Through  the  application  of  photography  and 
minute  attention  to  details,  this  work  of  the  Lick 
Observatory  almost  immediately  gained  a  position 
of  preeminence,  which  it  maintains  to  the  present 
time.  If  any  rival  is  to  appear,  it  will  probably 
be  the  Yerkes  Observatory.  The  friendly  com- 
petition which  we  are  likely  to  see  between  these 
two  establishments  affords  an  excellent  example  of 
the  spirit  of  the  astronomy  of  the  future.  Not- 
withstanding their  rivalry,  each  has  done  and  will 
do  all  it  can  to  promote  the  work  of  the  other. 


THE  LICK  OBSERVATORY  191 

The  smiles  of  fortune  have  been  bestowed  even 
upon  efforts  that  seemed  most  unpromising.  After 
work  was  well  organized,  Mr.  Crossley,  of  Eng- 
land, presented  the  observatory  with  a  reflecting 
telescope  of  large  size,  but  which  had  never  gained 
a  commanding  reputation.  No  member  of  the  staff 
at  first  seemed  ambitious  to  get  hold  of  such  an 
instrument,  but,  in  time,  Keeler  gave  it  a  trial  in 
photographing  nebulae.  Then  it  was  found  that  a 
new  field  lay  open.  The  newly  acquired  reflector 
proved  far  superior  to  other  instruments  for  this 
purpose,  the  photographic  plates  showing  countless 
nebulae  in  every  part  of  the  sky,  which  the  human 
eye  was  incapable  of  discerning  in  the  most  power- 
ful of  telescopes. 

In  1892,  only  four  years  after  the  mounting  of 
the  telescope,  came  the  surprising  announcement 
that  the  work  of  Galileo  on  Jupiter  had  been  con- 
tinued by  the  discovery  of  a  fifth  satellite  to  that 
planet.  This  is  the  most  difficult  object  in  the 
solar  system,  only  one  or  two  observers  besides 
Barnard  having  commanded  the  means  of  seeing 
it.  The  incident  of  my  first  acquaintance  with  the 
discoverer  is  not  flattering  to  my  pride,  but  may  be 
worth  recalling. 

In  1877  I  was  president  of  the  American  As- 
sociation for  the  Advancement  of  Science  at  the 
meeting  held  in  Nashville.  There  I  was  told  of  a 
young  man  a  little  over  twenty  years  of  age,  a 
photographer  by  profession,  who  was  interested  in 
astronomy,  and  who  desired  to  see  me.  I  was,  of 


192    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

course,  very  glad  to  make  his  acquaintance.  I 
found  that  with  his  scanty  earnings  he  had  man- 
aged either  to  purchase  or  to  get  together  the 
materials  for  making  a  small  telescope.  He  was 
desirous  of  doing  something  with  it  that  might  be 
useful  in  astronomy,  and  wished  to  know  what  sug- 
gestions I  could  make  in  that  line.  I  did  not  for  a 
moment  suppose  that  there  was  a  reasonable  prob- 
ability of  the  young  man  doing  anything  better 
than  amuse  himself.  At  the  same  time,  feeling  it 
a  duty  to  encourage  him,  I  suggested  that  there 
was  only  one  thing  open  to  an  astronomical  ob- 
server situated  as  he  was,  and  that  was  the  dis- 
covery of  comets.  I  had  never  even  looked  for  a 
comet  myself,  and  knew  little  about  the  methods 
of  exploring  the  heavens  for  one,  except  what  had 
been  told  me  by  H.  P.  Tuttle.  But  I  gave  him 
the  best  directions  I  could,  and  we  parted.  It  is 
now  rather  humiliating  that  I  did  not  inquire  more 
thoroughly  into  the  case.  It  would  have  taken 
more  prescience  than  I  was  gifted  with  to  expect 
that  I  should  live  to  see  the  bashful  youth  awarded 
the  gold  medal  of  the  Koyal  Astronomical  Society 
for  his  work. 

The  term  of  Holden's  administration  extended 
through  some  ten  years.  To  me  its  most  singular 
feature  was  the  constantly  growing  unpopularity 
of  the  director.  I  call  it  singular  because,  if  we 
confine  ourselves  to  the  record,  it  would  be  difficult 
to  assign  any  obvious  reason  for  it.  One  fact  is 
indisputable,  and  that  is  the  wonderful  success  of 


THE  LICK  OBSERVATORY  193 

the  director  in  selecting  young  men  who  were  to 
make  the  institution  famous  by  their  abilities  and 
industry.  If  the  highest  problem  of  administra- 
tion is  to  select  the  right  men,  the  new  director 
certainly  mastered  it.  So  far  as  liberty  of  research 
and  publication  went,  the  administration  had  the 
appearance  of  being  liberal  in  the  extreme.  Doubt- 
less there  was  another  side  to  the  question.  No- 
thing happens  spontaneously,  and  the  singular  phe- 
nomenon of  one  who  had  done  all  this  becoming 

c? 

a  much  hated  man  must  have  an  adequate  cause. 
I  have  several  times,  from  pure  curiosity,  inquired 
about  the  matter  of  well-informed  men.  On  one 
occasion  an  instance  of  maladroitness  was  cited  in 
reply. 

"  True,"  said  I,  "  it  was  not  exactly  the  thing 
to  do,  but,  after  all,  that  is  an  exceedingly  small 
matter." 

"  Yes,"  was  the  answer,  "  that  was  a  small  thing, 
but  put  a  thousand  small  things  like  that  together, 
and  you  have  a  big  thing." 

A  powerful  factor  in  the  case  may  have  been  his 
proceeding,  within  a  year  of  his  appointment,  to 
file  an  astounding  claim  for  the  sum  of  $12,000  on 
account  of  services  rendered  to  the  observatory  in 
the  capacity  of  general  adviser  before  his  appoint- 
ment as  director.  These  services  extended  from 
the  beginning  of  preparations  in  1874  up  to  the 
completion  of  the  work.  The  trustees  in  replying 
to  the  claim  maintained  that  I  had  been  their  prin- 
cipal adviser  in  preparing  the  plans.  However  true 


194    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

this  may  have  been,  it  was  quite  evident,  from 
Holden's  statement,  that  they  had  been  consulting 
him  on  a  much  larger  scale  than  I  had  been  aware 
of.  This,  however,  was  none  of  my  concern.  I 
ventured  to  express  the  opinion  that  the  movement 
was  made  merely  to  place  on  record  a  statement  of 
the  director's  services ;  and  that  no  serious  inten- 
tion of  forcing  the  matter  to  a  legal  decision  was 
entertained.  This  surmise  proved  to  be  correct,  as 
nothing  more  was  heard  of  the  claim. 

Much  has  been  said  of  the  effect  of  the  com- 
parative isolation  of  such  a  community,  which  is 
apt  to  be  provocative  of  internal  dissension.  But 
this  cause  has  not  operated  in  the  case  of  Holden's 
successors.  Keeler  became  the  second  director  in 
1897,  and  administered  his  office  with,  so  far  as  I 
know,  universal  satisfaction  till  his  lamented  death 
in  1900.  It  would  not  be  a  gross  overstatement 
to  say  that  his  successor  was  named  by  the  prac- 
tically unanimous  voice  of  a  number  of  the  leading 
astronomers  of  the  world  who  were  consulted  on 
the  subject,  and  who  cannot  but  be  pleased  to  see 
how  completely  their  advice  has  been  justified  by 
the  result  of  Campbell's  administration. 


VIII 
THE  AUTHOR'S  SCIENTIFIC  WORK 

PERHAPS  an  apology  is  due  to  the  reader  for  my 
venturing  to  devote  a  chapter  to  niy  own  efforts 
in  the  scientific  line.  If  so,  I  scarcely  know  what 
apology  to  make,  unless  it  is  that  one  naturally 
feels  interested  in  matters  relating  to  his  own  work, 
and  hopes  to  share  that  interest  with  his  readers, 
and  that  it  is  easier  for  one  to  write  such  an  ac- 
count for  himself  than  for  any  one  else  to  do  it  for 
him. 

Having  determined  to  devote  my  life  to  the  pro~ 
secution  of  exact  astronomy,  the  first  important 
problem  which  I  took  up,  while  at  Cambridge,  was 
that  of  the  zone  of  minor  planets,  frequently  called 
asteroids,  revolving  between  the  orbits  of  Mars  and 
Jupiter.  It  was  formerly  supposed  that  these  small 
bodies  might  be  fragments  of  a  large  planet  which 
had  been  shattered  by  a  collision  or  explosion.  If 
such  were  the  case,  the  orbits  would,  for  a  time 
at  least,  all  pass  through  the  point  at  which  the 
explosion  occurred.  When  only  three  or  four  were 
known,  it  was  supposed  that  they  did  pass  nearly 
through  the  same  point.  When  this  was  found 
not  to  be  the  case,  the  theory  of  an  explosion  was 
in  no  way  weakened,  because,  owing  to  the  gradual 


196    THE  REMINISCENCES   OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

changes  in  the  form  and  position  of  the  orbits,  pro- 
duced by  the  attraction  of  the  larger  planets,  these 
orbits  would  all  move  away  from  the  point  of  inter- 
section, and,  in  the  course  of  thousands  of  years,  be 
so  mixed  up  that  no  connection  could  be  seen  be- 
tween them.  This  result  was  that  nothing  could 
be  said  upon  the  subject  except  that,  if  the  catas- 
trophe ever  did  occur,  it  must  have  been  many  thou- 
sand years  ago.  The  fact  did  not  in  any  way  mili- 
tate against  the  theory  because,  in  view  of  the  age 
of  the  universe,  the  explosion  might  as  well  have 
occurred  hundreds  of  thousands  or  even  millions 
of  years  ago  as  yesterday.  To  settle  the  question, 
general  formulae  must  be  found  by  which  the  posi- 
tions of  these  orbits  could  be  determined  at  any 
time  in  the  past,  even  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
years  back.  The  general  methods  of  doing  this 
were  known,  but  no  one  had  applied  them  to  the 
especial  case  of  these  little  planets.  Here,  then, 
was  an  opportunity  of  tracing  back  the  changes  in 
these  orbits  through  thousands  of  centuries  in  order 
to  find  whether,  at  a  certain  epoch  in  the  past,  so 
great  a  cataclysm  had  occurred  as  the  explosion  of 
a  world.  Were  such  the  case,  it  would  be  possible 
almost  to  set  the  day  of  the  occurrence.  How  great 
a  feat  would  it  be  to  bring  such  an  event  at  such  a 
time  to  light ! 

I  soon  found  that  the  problem,  in  the  form  in 
which  it  had  been  attacked  by  previous  mathe- 
maticians, involved  no  serious  difficulty.  At  the 
Springfield  meeting  of  the  American  Association 


THE  AUTHOR'S  SCIENTIFIC   WORK  197 

for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  in  1859,  I  read 
a  paper  explaining  the  method,  and  showed  by  a 
curve  on  the  blackboard  the  changes  in  the  orbit 
of  one  of  the  asteroids  for  a  period,  I  think,  of 
several  hundred  thousand  years,  —  "  beyond  the 
memory  of  the  oldest  inhabitants "  —  said  one 
of  the  local  newspapers.  A  month  later  it  was 
extended  to  three  other  asteroids,  and  the  result 
published  in  the  "  Astronomical  Journal."  In  the 
following  spring,  1860,  the  final  results  of  the 
completed  work  were  communicated  to  the  Amer- 
ican Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences  in  a  paper 
"  On  the  Secular  Variations  and  Mutual  Relations 
of  the  Orbits  of  the  Asteroids."  The  question  of 
the  possible  variations  in  the  orbits  and  the  various 
relations  amongst  them  were  here  fully  discussed. 
One  conclusion  was  that,  so  far  as  our  present 
theory  could  show,  the  orbits  had  never  passed 
through  any  common  point  of  intersection. 

The  whole  trend  of  thought  and  research  since 
that  time  has  been  toward  the  conclusion  that  no 
such  cataclysm  as  that  looked  for  ever  occurred, 
and  that  the  group  of  small  planets  has  been  com- 
posed of  separate  bodies  since  the  solar  system  came 
into  existence.  It  was,  of  course,  a  great  disap- 
pointment not  to  discover  the  cataclysm,  but  next 
best  to  finding  a  thing  is  showing  that  it  is  not 
there.  This,  it  may  be  remarked,  was  the  first  of 
my  papers  to  attract  especial  notice  in  foreign  sci- 
entific journals,  though  I  had  already  published 
several  short  notes  on  various  subjects  in  the  "  As- 
tronomical Journal." 


198    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

At  this  point  I  may  say  something  of  the  prob- 
lems of  mathematical  astronomy  in  the  middle  of 
the  last  century.  It  is  well  known  that  we  shall  at 
least  come  very  near  the  truth  when  we  say  that  the 
planets  revolve  around  the  sun,  and  the  satellites 
around  their  primaries  according  to  the  law  of  gravi- 
tation. We  may  regard  all  these  bodies  as  projected 
into  space,  and  thus  moving  according  to  laws  simi- 
lar to  that  which  governs  the  motion  of  a  stone 
thrown  from  the  hand.  If  two  bodies  alone  were 
concerned,  say  the  sun  and  a  planet,  the  orbit  of  the 
lesser  around  the  greater  would  be  an  ellipse,  which 
would  never  change  its  form,  size,  or  position. 
That  the  orbits  of  the  planets  and  asteroids  do 
change,  and  that  they  are  not  exact  ellipses,  is  due 
to  their  attraction  upon  each  other.  The  question 
is,  do  these  mutual  attractions  completely  explain 
all  the  motions  down  to  the  last  degree  of  refine- 
ment ?  Does  any  world  move  otherwise  than  as  it 
is  attracted  by  other  worlds  ? 

Two  different  lines  of  research  must  be  brought 
to  bear  on  the  question  thus  presented.  We  must 
first  know  by  the  most  exact  and  refined  observa- 
tions that  the  astronomer  can  make  exactly  how  a 
heavenly  body  does  move.  Its  position,  or,  as  we 
cannot  directly  measure  distance,  its  direction  from 
us,  must  be  determined  as  precisely  as  possible  from 
time  to  time.  Its  course  has  been  mapped  out  for 
it  hi  advance  by  tables  which  are  published  in  the 
"Astronomical  Ephemeris,"  and  we  may  express  its 
position  by  its  deviation  from  these  tables.  Then 


THE  AUTHOR'S  SCIENTIFIC  WORK  199 

comes  in  the  mathematical  problem  how  it  ought 
to  move  under  the  attraction  of  all  other  heavenly 
bodies  that  can  influence  its  motion.  The  results 
must  then  be  compared,  in  order  to  see  to  what  con- 
clusion we  may  be  led. 

This  mathematical  side  of  the  question  is  of  a 
complexity  beyond  the  powers  of  ordinary  concep- 
tion. I  well  remember  that  when,  familiar  only 
with  equations  of  algebra,  I  first  looked  into  a  book 
on  mechanics,  I  was  struck  by  the  complexity  of  the 
formulae.  But  this  was  nothing  to  what  one  finds 
when  he  looks  into  a  work  on  celestial  mechanics, 
where  a  single  formula  may  fill  a  whole  chapter. 
The  great  difficulty  arises  from  the  fact  that  the 
constant  action  upon  a  planet  exerted  at  every  mo- 
ment of  time  through  days  and  years  by  another 
planet  affects  its  motion  in  all  subsequent  time. 
The  action  of  Jupiter  upon  our  earth  this  morning 
changes  its  motion  forever,  just  as  a  touch  upon  a 
ball  thrown  by  a  pitcher  will  change  the  direction 
of  the  ball  through  its  whole  flight. 

The  wondrous  perfection  of  mathematical  re- 
search is  shown  by  the  fact  that  we  can  now  add 
up,  as  it  were,  all  these  momentary  effects  through 
years  and  centuries,  with  a  view  of  determining  the 
combined  result  at  any  one  moment.  It  is  true 
that  this  can  be  done  only  in  an  imperfect  way, 
and  at  the  expense  of  enormous  labor ;  but,  by 
putting  more  and  more  work  into  it,  investigating 
deeper  and  deeper,  taking  into  account  smaller  and 
smaller  terms  of  our  formulae,  and  searching  for  the 


200    THE  REMINISCENCES   OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

minutest  effects,  we  may  gradually  approach,  though 
we  may  never  reach,  absolute  exactness.  Here  we 
see  the  first  difficulty  in  reaching  a  definite  conclu- 
sion. One  cannot  be  quite  sure  that  a  deviation 
is  not  due  to  some  imperfection  in  mathematical 
method  until  he  and  his  fellows  have  exhausted  the 
subject  so  thoroughly  as  to  show  that  no  error  is 
possible.  This  is  hard  indeed  to  do. 

Taking  up  the  question  on  the  observational  side, 
a  source  of  difficulty  and  confusion  at  once  presented 
itself.  The  motions  of  a  heavenly  body  from  day  to 
day  and  year  to  year  are  mapped  out  by  comparative 
observations  on  it  and  on  the  stars.  The  question 
of  the  exact  positions  of  the  stars  thus  comes  in. 
In  determining  these  positions  with  the  highest  de- 
gree of  precision,  a  great  variety  of  data  have  to 
be  used.  The  astronomer  cannot  reach  a  result  by 
a  single  step,  nor  by  a  hundred  steps.  He  is  like  a 
sculptor  chiseling  all  the  time,  trying  to  get  nearer 
and  nearer  the  ideal  form  of  his  statue,  and  finding 
that  with  every  new  feature  he  chisels  out,  a  defect 
is  brought  to  light  in  other  features.  The  astron- 
omer, when  he  aims  at  the  highest  mathematical 
precision  in  his  results,  finds  Nature  warring  with 
him  at  every  step,  just  as  if  she  wanted  to  make  his 
task  as  difficult  as  possible.  She  alters  his  personal 
equation  when  he  gets  tired,  makes  him  see  a  small 
star  differently  from  a  bright  one,  gives  his  instru- 
ment minute  twists  with  heat  and  cold,  sends  cur- 
rents of  warm  or  cold  air  over  his  locality,  which 
refract  the  rays  of  light,  asks  him  to  keep  the  tern- 


THE  AUTHOR'S  SCIENTIFIC   WORK  201 

perature  in  which  he  works  the  same  as  that  out- 
side, in  order  to  avoid  refraction  when  the  air  enters 
his  observing  room,  and  still  will  not  let  him  do  it, 
because  the  walls  and  everything  inside  the  room, 
being  warmed  up  during  the  day,  make  the  air 
warmer  than  it  is  outside.  With  all  these  obstacles 
which  she  throws  in  his  way  he  must  simply  fight 
the  best  he  can,  exerting  untiring  industry  to  elimi- 
nate their  effects  by  repeated  observations  under  a 
variety  of  conditions. 

A  necessary  conclusion  from  all  this  is  that  the 
work  of  all  observing  astronomers,  so  far  as  it  could 
be  used,  must  be  combined  into  a  single  whole.  But 
here  again  difficulties  are  met  at  every  step.  There 
has  been,  in  times  past,  little  or  no  concert  of  action 
among  astronomers  at  different  observatories.  The 
astronomers  of  each  nation,  perhaps  of  each  obser- 
vatory, to  a  large  extent,  have  gone  to  work  in  their 
own  way,  using  discordant  data,  perhaps  not  always 
rigidly  consistent,  even  in  the  data  used  in  a  single 
establishment.  How  combine  all  the  astronomical 
observations,  found  scattered  through  hundreds  of 
volumes,  into  a  homogeneous  whole  ? 

What  is  the  value  of  such  an  attempt?  Cer- 
tainly if  we  measure  value  by  the  actual  expen- 
diture of  nations  and  institutions  upon  the  work, 
it  must  be  very  great.  Every  civilized  nation  ex- 
pends a  large  annual  sum  on  a  national  observatory, 
while  a  still  greater  number  of  such  institutions  are 
supported  at  corporate  expense.  Considering  that 
the  highest  value  can  be  derived  from  their  labors 


202    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

only  by  such  a  combination  as  I  have  described,  we 
may  say  the  result  is  worth  an  important  fraction 
of  what  all  the  observatories  of  the  world  have  cost 
during  the  past  century. 

Such  was,  in  a  general  way,  the  great  problem  of 
exact  astronomy  forty  or  fifty  years  ago.  Its  solu- 
tion required  extended  cooperation,  and  I  do  not 
wish  to  give  the  impression  that  I  at  once  attacked 
it,  or  even  considered  it  as  a  whole.  I  could  only 
determine  to  do  my  part  in  carrying  forward  the 
work  associated  with  it. 

Perhaps  the  most  interesting  and  important 
branch  of  the  problem  concerned  the  motion  of 
the  moon.  This  had  been,  ever  since  the  founda- 
tion of  the  Greenwich  Observatory,  in  1670,  a 
specialty  of  that  institution.  It  is  a  curious  fact, 
however,  that  while  that  observatory  supplied  all 
the  observations  of  the  moon,  the  investigations 
based  upon  these  observations  were  made  almost 
entirely  by  foreigners,  who  also  constructed  the 
tables  by  which  the  moon's  motion  was  mapped 
out  in  advance.  The  most  perfect  tables  made 
were  those  of  Hansen,  the  greatest  master  of 
mathematical  astronomy  during  the  middle  of  the 
century,  whose  tables  of  the  moon  were  published 
by  the  British  government  in  1857.  They  were 
based  on  a  few  of  the  Greenwich  observations  from 
1750  to  1850.  The  period  began  with  1750,  be- 
cause that  was  the  earliest  at  which  observations 
of  any  exactness  were  made.  Only  a  few  observa- 
tions were  used,  because  Hansen,  with  the  limited 


THE  AUTHOR'S  SCIENTIFIC   WORK  203 

computing  force  at  his  command,  —  only  a  single  as- 
sistant, I  believe,  —  was  not  able  to  utilize  a  great 
number  of  the  observations.  The  rapid  motion  of 
the  moon,  a  circuit  being  completed  in  less  than 
a  month,  made  numerous  observations  necessary, 
while  the  very  large  deviations  in  the  motion  pro- 
duced by  the  attraction  of  the  sun  made  the  prob- 
lem of  the  mathematical  theory  of  that  motion  the 
most  complicated  in  astronomy.  Thus  it  happened 
that,  when  I  commenced  work  at  the  Naval  Ob- 
servatory in  1861,  the  question  whether  the  moon 
exactly  followed  the  course  laid  out  for  her  by 
Hansen's  tables  was  becoming  of  great  importance. 

The  same  question  arose  in  the  case  of  the  plan- 
ets. So  from  a  survey  of  the  whole  field,  I  made 
observations  of  the  sun,  moon,  and  planets  my  spe- 
cialty at  the  observatory.  If  the  astronomical 
reader  has  before  him  the  volume  of  observations 
for  1861,  he  will,  by  looking  at  pages  366-440,  be 
able  to  infer  with  nearly  astronomical  precision  the 
date  when  I  reported  for  duty. 

For  a  year  or  two  our  observations  showed  that 
the  moon  seemed  to  be  falling  a  little  behind  her 
predicted  motion.  But  this  soon  ceased,  and  she 
gradually  forged  ahead  in  a  much  more  remarkable 
way.  In  five  or  six  years  it  was  evident  that  this 
was  becoming  permanent ;  she  was  a  little  farther 
ahead  every  year.  What  could  it  mean  ?  To  con- 
sider this  question,  I  may  add  a  word  to  what  I 
have  already  said  on  the  subject. 

In  comparing  the  observed  and  predicted  motion 


204    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

of  the  moon,  mathematicians  and  astronomers,  be- 
ginning with  Laplace,  have  been  perplexed  by 
what  are  called  "  inequalities  of  long  period." 
For  a  number  of  years,  perhaps  half  a  century,  the 
moon  would  seem  to  be  running  ahead,  and  then 
she  would  gradually  relax  her  speed  and  fall 
behind.  Laplace  suggested  possible  causes,  but 
could  not  prove  them.  Hansen,  it  was  supposed, 
had  straightened  out  the  tangle  by  showing  that 
the  action  of  Venus  produced  a  swinging  of  this 
sort  in  the  moon  ;  for  one  hundred  and  thirty  years 
she  would  be  running  ahead  and  then  for  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty  years  more  falling  back  again,  like 
a  pendulum.  Two  motions  of  this  sort  were  com- 
bined together.  They  were  claimed  to  explain  the 
whole  difficulty.  The  moon,  having  followed  Han- 
sen's  theory  for  one  hundred  years,  would  not  be 
likely  to  deviate  from  it.  Now,  it  was  deviating. 
What  could  it  mean  ? 

Taking  it  for  granted,  on  Hansen's  authority, 
that  his  tables  represented  the  motions  of  the  moon 
perfectly  since  1750,  was  there  no  possibility  of 
learning  anything  from  observations  before  that 
date?  As  I  have  already  said,  the  published  ob- 
servations with  the  usual  instruments  were  not  of 
that  refined  character  which  would  decide  a  ques- 
tion like  this.  But  there  is  another  class  of  obser- 
vations which  might  possibly  be  available  for  the 
purpose. 

Millions  of  stars,  visible  with  large  telescopes, 
are  scattered  over  the  heavens ;  tens  of  thousands 


THE  AUTHOR'S  SCIENTIFIC   WORK  205 

are  bright  enough  to  be  seen  with  small  instru- 
ments, and  several  thousand  are  visible  to  any 
ordinary  eye.  The  moon,  in  her  monthly  course 
around  the  heavens,  often  passes  over  a  star,  and 
of  course  hides  it  from  view  during  the  time  re- 
quired for  the  passage.  The  great  majority  of 
stars  are  so  small  that  their  light  is  obscured  by 
the  effulgence  of  the  moon  as  the  latter  approaches 
them.  But  quite  frequently  the  star  passed  over 
is  so  bright  that  the  exact  moment  when  the  moon 
reaches  it  can  be  observed  with  the  utmost  preci- 
sion. The  star  then  disappears  from  view  in  an 
instant,  as  if  its  light  were  suddenly  and  abso- 
lutely extinguished.  This  is  called  an  occultation. 
If  the  moment  at  which  the  disappearance  takes 
place  is  observed,  we  know  that  at  that  instant  the 
apparent  angle  between  the  centre  of  the  moon 
and  the  star  is  equal  to  the  moon's  semi-diameter. 
By  the  aid  of  a  number  of  such  observations,  the 
path  of  the  moon  in  the  heavens,  and  the  time  at 
which  she  arrives  at  each  point  of  the  path,  can  be 
determined.  In  order  that  the  determination  may 
be  of  sufficient  scientific  precision,  the  time  of  the 
occultation  must  be  known  within  one  or  two  sec- 
onds ;  otherwise,  we  shall  be  in  doubt  how  much 
of  the  discrepancy  may  be  due  to  the  error  of  the 
observation,  and  how  much  to  the  error  of  the 
tables. 

Occultations  of  some  bright  stars,  such  as  Aldeb- 
aran  and  Antares,  can  be  observed  by  the  naked 
eye  ;  and  yet  more  easily  can  those  of  the  planets  be 


206    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

seen.  It  is  therefore  a  curious  historic  fact  that 
there  is  no  certain  record  of  an  actual  observation 
of  this  sort  having  been  made  until  after  the  com- 
mencement of  the  seventeenth  century.  Even  then 
the  observations  were  of  little  or  no  use,  because 
astronomers  could  not  determine  their  time  with 
sufficient  precision.  It  was  not  till  after  the  mid- 
dle of  the  century,  when  the  telescope  had  been 
made  part  of  astronomical  instruments  for  finding 
the  altitude  of  a  heavenly  body,  and  after  the  pen- 
dulum clock  had  been  invented  by  Huyghens,  that 
the  time  of  an  occultation  could  be  fixed  with  the 
required  exactness.  Thus  it  happens  that  from 
1640  to  1670  somewhat  coarse  observations  of  the 
kind  are  available,  and  after  the  latter  epoch  those 
made  by  the  French  astronomers  become  almost 
equal  to  the  modern  ones  in  precision. 

The  question  that  occurred  to  me  was  :  Is  it  not 
possible  that  such  observations  were  made  by  as- 
tronomers long  before  1750  ?  Searching  the  pub- 
lished memoirs  of  the  French  Academy  of  Sciences 
and  the  Philosophical  Transactions,  I  found  that  a 
few  such  observations  were  actually  made  between 
1660  and  1700.  I  computed  and  reduced  a  few 
of  them,  finding  with  surprise  that  Hansen's  tables 
were  evidently  much  in  error  at  that  time.  But 
neither  the  cause,  amount,  or  nature  of  the  error 
could  be  well  determined  without  more  observa- 
tions than  these.  Was  it  not  possible  that  these 
astronomers  had  made  more  than  they  published  ? 
The  hope  that  material  of  this  sort  existed  was 


THE  AUTHOR'S  SCIENTIFIC  WORK  207 

encouraged  by  the  discovery  at  the  Pulkowa  Ob- 
servatory of  an  old  manuscript  by  the  French  as- 
tronomer Delisle,  containing  some  observations  of 
this  kind.  I  therefore  planned  a  thorough  search 
of  the  old  records  in  Europe  to  see  what  could  be 
learned. 

The  execution  of  this  plan  was  facilitated  by 
the  occurrence,  in  December,  1870,  of  an  eclipse 
of  the  sun  in  Spain  and  along  the  Mediterranean. 
A  number  of  parties  were  going  out  from  this 
country  to  observe  it,  two  of  which  were  fitted  out 
at  the  Naval  Observatory.  I  was  placed  in  charge 
of  one  of  these,  consisting,  practically,  of  myself. 
The  results  of  my  observation  would  be  of  impor- 
tance in  the  question  of  the  moon's  motion,  but, 
although  the  eclipse  was  ostensibly  the  main  ob- 
ject, the  proposed  search  of  the  records  was  what 
I  really  had  most  in  view.  In  Paris  was  to  be 
found  the  most  promising  mine ;  but  the  Franco- 
Prussian  war  was  then  going  on,  and  I  had  to  wait 
for  its  termination.  Then  I  made  a  visit  to  Paris, 
which  will  be  described  in  a  later  chapter. 

At  the  observatory  the  old  records  I  wished  to 
consult  were  placed  at  my  disposal,  with  full  liberty 
not  only  to  copy,  but  to  publish  anything  of  value 
I  could  find  in  them.  The  mine  proved  rich  be- 
yond the  most  sanguine  expectation.  After  a  lit- 
tle prospecting,  I  found  that  the  very  observations 
I  wanted  had  been  made  in  great  numbers  by  the 
Paris  astronomers,  both  at  the  observatory  and  at 
other  points  in  the  city. 


208    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

And  how,  the  reader  may  ask,  did  it  happen  that 
these  observations  were  not  published  by  the  astron- 
omers who  made  them  ?  Why  should  they  have 
lain  unused  and  forgotten  for  two  hundred  years  ? 
The  answer  to  these  questions  is  made  plain  enough 
by  an  examination  of  the  records.  The  astrono- 
mers had  no  idea  of  the  possible  usefulness  and 
value  of  what  they  were  recording.  So  far  as  we 
can  infer  from  their  work,  they  made  the  observa- 
tions merely  because  an  occultation  was  an  interest- 
ing thing  to  see ;  and  they  were  men  of  sufficient 
scientific  experience  and  training  to  have  acquired 
the  excellent  habit  of  noting  the  time  at  which  a 
phenomenon  was  observed.  But  they  were  gener- 
ally satisfied  with  simply  putting  down  the  clock 
time.  How  they  coirld  have  expected  their  succes- 
sors to  make  any  use  of  such  a  record,  or  whether 
they  had  any  expectations  on  the  subject,  we  cannot 
say  with  confidence.  It  will  be  readily  understood 
that  no  clocks  of  the  present  time  (much  less  those 
of  two  hundred  years  ago)  run  with  such  precision 
that  the  moment  read  from  the  clock  is  exact  within 
one  or  two  seconds.  The  modern  astronomer  does 
not  pretend  to  keep  his  clock  correct  within  less 
than  a  minute ;  he  determines  by  observation  how 
far  it  is  wrong,  on  each  date  of  observation,  and 
adds  so  much  to  the  time  given  by  the  clock,  or 
subtracts  it,  as  the  case  may  be,  in  order  to  get  the 
correct  moment  of  true  time.  In  the  case  of  the 
French  astronomers,  the  clock  would  frequently  be 
fifteen  minutes  or  more  in  error,  for  the  reason  that 


THE  AUTHOR'S  SCIENTIFIC  WORK  209 

they  used  apparent  time,  instead  of  mean  time  as 
we  do.  Thus  when,  as  was  often  the  case,  the  only 
record  found  was  that,  at  a  certain  hour,  minute, 
and  second,  by  a  certain  clock,  une  etoile  se  cache 
par  la  lune,  a  number  of  very  difficult  problems 
were  presented  to  the  astronomer  who  was  to  make 
use  of  the  observations  two  centuries  afterward. 
First  of  all,  he  must  find  out  what  the  error  of  the 
clock  was  at  the  designated  hour,  minute,  and  sec- 
ond ;  and  for  this  purpose  he  must  reduce  the 
observations  made  by  the  observer  in  order  to  de- 
termine the  error.  But  it  was  very  clear  that  the 
observer  did  not  expect  any  successor  to  take  this 
trouble,  and  therefore  did  not  supply  him  with  any 
facilities  for  so  doing.  He  did  not  even  describe 
the  particular  instrument  with  which  the  observa- 
tions were  made,  but  only  wrote  down  certain  fig- 
ures and  symbols,  of  a  more  or  less  hieroglyphic 
character.  It  needed  much  comparison  and  exam- 
ination to  find  out  what  sort  of  an  instrument  was 
used,  how  the  observations  were  made,  and  how  they 
should  be  utilized  for  the  required  purpose. 

Generally  the  star  which  the  moon  hid  was  men- 
tioned, but  not  in  all  cases.  If  it  was  not,  the 
identification  of  the  star  was  a  puzzling  problem. 
The  only  way  to  proceed  was  to  calculate  the  ap- 
parent position  of  the  centre  of  the  moon  as  seen 
by  an  observer  at  the  Paris  Observatory,  at  the  par- 
ticular hour  and  minute  of  the  observation.  A 
star  map  was  then  taken  ;  the  points  of  a  pair  of 
dividers  were  separated  by  the  length  of  the  moon's 


210    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

radius,  as  it  would  appear  on  the  scale  of  the  map ; 
one  point  of  the  dividers  was  put  into  the  position 
of  the  moon's  centre  on  the  map,  and  with  the  other 
a  circle  was  drawn.  This  circle  represented  the 
outline  of  the  moon,  as  it  appeared  to  the  observer 
at  the  Paris  Observatory,  at  the  hour  and  minute 
in  question,  on  a  certain  day  in  the  seventeenth 
century.  The  star  should  be  found  very  near  the 
circumference  of  the  circle,  and  in  nearly  all  cases 
a  star  was  there. 

Of  course  all  this  could  not  be  done  on  the  spot. 
What  had  to  be  done  was  to  find  the  observations, 
study  their  relations  and  the  method  of  making 
them,  and  copy  everything  that  seemed  necessary 
for  working  them  up.  This  took  some  six  weeks, 
but  the  material  I  carried  away  proved  the  great- 
est find  I  ever  made.  Three  or  four  years  were 
spent  in  making  all  the  calculations  I  have  de- 
scribed. Then  it  was  found  that  seventy-five  years 
were  added,  at  a  single  step,  to  the  period  during 
which  the  history  of  the  moon's  motion  could  be 
written.  Previously  this  history  was  supposed  to 
commence  with  the  observations  of  Bradley,  at 
Greenwich,  about  1750 ;  now  it  was  extended  back 
to  1675,  and  with  a  less  degree  of  accuracy  thirty 
years  farther  still.  Hansen's  tables  were  found  to 
deviate  from  the  truth,  in  1675  and  subsequent 
years,  to  a  surprising  extent ;  but  the  cause  of  the 
deviation  is  not  entirely  unfolded  even  now. 

During  the  time  I  was  doing  this  work,  Paris 
was  under  the  reign  of  the  Commune  and  besieged 


THE  AUTHOR'S  SCIENTIFIC  WORK  211 

by  the  national  forces.  The  studies  had  to  be 
made  within  hearing  of  the  besieging  guns;  and 
I  could  sometimes  go  to  a  window  and  see  flashes 
of  artillery  from  one  of  the  fortifications  to  the 
south.  Nearly  every  day  I  took  a  walk  through 
the  town,  occasionally  as  far  as  the  Arc.  As  my 
observations  during  these  walks  have  no  scientific 
value,  I  shall  postpone  an  account  of  what  I  saw 
to  another  chapter. 

One  curious  result  of  this  work  is  that  the  longi- 
tude of  the  moon  may  now  be  said  to  be  known 
with  greater  accuracy  through  the  last  quarter  of 
the  seventeenth  century  than  during  the  ninety 
years  from  1750  to  1840.  The  reason  is  that,  for 
this  more  modern  period,  no  effective  comparison 
has  been  made  between  observations  and  Hansen's 
tables. 

Just  as  this  work  was  approaching  completion  I 
was  called  upon  to  decide  a  question  which  would 
materially  influence  all  iny  future  activity.  The 
lamented  death  of  Professor  Winlock  in  1875  left 
vacant  the  directorship  of  the  Harvard  Observa- 
tory. A  month  or  two  later  I  was  quite  taken  by 
surprise  to  receive  a  letter  from  President  Eliot 
tendering  me  this  position.  I  thus  had  to  choose 
between  two  courses.  One  led  immediately  to  a 
professorship  in  Harvard  University,  with  all  the 
distinction  and  worldly  advantages  associated  with 
it,  including  complete  freedom  of  action,  an  inde- 
pendent position,  and  the  opportunity  of  doing 


212    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

such  work  as  I  deemed  best  with  the  limited  re- 
sources at  the  disposal  of  the  observatory.  On  the 
other  hand  was  a  position  to  which  the  official 
world  attached  no  importance,  and  which  brought 
with  it  no  worldly  advantages  whatever. 

I  first  consulted  Mr.  Secretary  Robeson  on  the 
matter.  The  force  with  which  he  expressed  him- 
self took  me  quite  by  surprise.  "  By  all  means 
accept  the  place ;  don't  remain  in  the  government 
service  a  day  longer  than  you  have  to.  A  scien- 
tific man  here  has  no  future  before  him,  and  the 
quicker  he  can  get  away  the  better."  Then  he 
began  to  descant  on  our  miserable  "  politics " 
which  brought  about  such  a  state  of  things. 

Such  words,  coming  from  a  sagacious  head  of  a 
department  who,  one  might  suppose,  would  have 
been  sorry  to  part  with  a  coadjutor  of  sufficient 
importance  to  be  needed  by  Harvard  University, 
seemed  to  me  very  suggestive.  And  yet  I  finally 
declined  the  place,  perhaps  unwisely  for  myself, 
though  no  one  who  knows  what  the  Cambridge 
Observatory  has  become  under  Professor  Pickering 
can  feel  that  Harvard  has  any  cause  to  regret  my 
decision.  An  apology  for  it  on  my  own  behalf 
will  seem  more  appropriate. 

On  the  Cambridge  side  it  must  be  remembered 
that  the  Harvard  Observatory  was  then  almost  no- 
thing compared  with  what  it  is  now.  It  was  poor  in 
means,  meagre  in  instrumental  outfit,  and  wanting 
in  working  assistants  ;  I  think  the  latter  did  not 
number  more  than  three  or  four,  with  perhaps  a  few 


THE  AUTHOR'S  SCIENTIFIC  WORK  213 

other  temporary  employees.     There  seemed  little 
prospect  of  doing  much. 

On  the  Washington  side  was  the  fact  that  I  was 
bound  to  Washington  by  family  ties,  and  that,  if 
Harvard  needed  my  services,  surely  the  government 
needed  them  much  more.  True,  this  argument 
was,  for  the  time,  annulled  by  the  energetic  assur- 
ance of  Secretary  Robeson,  showing  that  the  gov- 
ernment felt  no  want  of  any  one  in  its  service  able 
to  command  a  university  professorship.  But  I 
was  still  pervaded  by  the  optimism  of  youth  in 
everything  that  concerned  the  future  of  our  gov- 
ernment, and  did  not  believe  that,  with  the  growth 
of  intelligence  in  our  country,  an  absence  of  touch 
between  the  scientific  and  literary  classes  on  the 
one  side,  and  "  politics  "  on  the  other,  could  con- 
tinue. In  addition  to  this  was  the  general  feeling 
by  which  I  have  been  actuated  from  youth  —  that 
one  ought  to  choose  that  line  of  activity  for  which 
Nature  had  best  fitted  him,  trusting  that  the  oper- 
ation of  moral  causes  would,  in  the  end,  right 
every  wrong,  rather  than  look  out  for  place  and 
preferment.  I  felt  that  the  conduct  of  govern- 
ment astronomy  was  that  line  of  activity  for  which 
I  was  best  fitted,  and  that,  in  the  absence  of  strong 
reason  to  the  contrary,  it  had  better  not  be 
changed.  In  addition  to  these  general  considera- 
tions was  the  special  point  that,  in  the  course  of  a 
couple  of  years,  the  directorship  of  the  Nautical 
Almanac  would  become  vacant,  and  here  would 
be  an  unequaled  opportunity  for  carrying  on  the 


214    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

work  in  mathematical  astronomy  I  had  most  at 
heart.  Yet,  could  I  have  foreseen  that  the  want  of 
touch  which  I  have  already  referred  to  would  not 
be  cured,  that  I  should  be  unable  to  complete  the 
work  I  had  mapped  out  before  my  retirement,  or 
to  secure  active  public  interest  in  its  continuance, 
my  decision  would  perhaps  have  been  different. 

On  September  15,  1877,  I  took  charge  of  the 
Nautical  Almanac  Office.  The  change  was  one  of 
the  happiest  of  my  life.  I  was  now  in  a  position 
of  recognized  responsibility,  where  my  recommen- 
dations met  with  the  respect  due  to  that  responsi- 
bility, where  I  could  make  plans  with  the  assur- 
ance of  being  able  to  carry  them  out,  and  where 
the  countless  annoyances  of  being  looked  upon 
as  an  important  factor  in  work  where  there  was 
no  chance  of  my  being  such  would  no  longer  exist. 
Practically  I  had  complete  control  of  the  work 
of  the  office,  and  was  thus,  metaphorically  speak- 
ing, able  to  work  with  untied  hands.  It  may  seem 
almost  puerile  to  say  this  to  men  of  business  ex- 
perience, but  there  is  a  current  notion,  spread 
among  all  classes,  that  because  the  Naval  Obser- 
vatory has  able  and  learned  professors,  therefore 
they  must  be  able  to  do  good  and  satisfactory 
work,  which  may  be  worth  correcting. 

I  found  my  new  office  in  a  rather  dilapidated  old 
dwelling-house,  about  half  a  mile  or  less  from  the 
observatory,  in  one  of  those  doubtful  regions  on 
the  border  line  between  a  slum  and  the  lowest 
order  of  respectability.  If  I  remember  aright,  the 


THE  AUTHOR'S  SCIENTIFIC  WORK  215 

only  occupants  of  the  place  were  the  superintend- 
ent, my  old  friend  Mr.  Loomis,  senior  assistant, 
who  looked  after  current  business,  a  proof-reader 
and  a  messenger.  All  the  computers,  including 
even  one  copyist,  did  their  work  at  their  homes. 

A  couple  of  changes  had  to  be  made  in  the 
interest  of  efficiency.  The  view  taken  of  one  of 
these  may  not  only  interest  the  reader,  but  give 
him  an  idea  of  what  people  used  to  think  of  gov- 
ernment service  before  the  era  of  civil  service 
reform.  The  proof-reader  was  excellent  in  every 
respect  except  that  of  ability  to  perform  his  duty. 
He  occupied  a  high  position,  I  believe,  in  the 
Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  and  thus  wielded  a 
good  deal  of  influence.  When  his  case  was  ap- 
pealed to  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  apellant  was 
referred  to  me.  I  stated  the  trouble  to  counsel, 
—  he  did  not  appear  to  see  figures,  or  be  able  to 
distinguish  whether  they  were  right  or  wrong,  and 
therefore  was  useless  as  a  proof-reader. 

"  It  is  not  his  fault,"  was  the  reply ;  "  he  nearly 
lost  his  eyesight  in  the  civil  war,  and  it  is  hard 
for  him  to  see  at  all."  In  the  view  of  counsel 
that  explanation  ought  to  have  settled  the  case  in 
his  favor.  It  did  not,  however,  but  "  influence  " 
had  no  difficulty  in  making  itself  more  successful 
in  another  field. 

Among  my  first  steps  was  that  of  getting  a  new 
office  in  the  top  of  the  Corcoran  Building,  then 
just  completed.  It  was  large  and  roomy  enough 
to  allow  quite  a  number  of  assistants  around  me. 


216    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

Much  of  the  work  was  then,  as  now,  done  by 
the  piece,  or  annual  job,  the  computers  on  it  very 
generally  working  at  their  homes.  This  offers 
many  advantages  for  such  work  ;  the  government  is 
not  burdened  with  an  officer  who  must  be  paid  his 
regular  monthly  salary  whether  he  supplies  his 
work  or  not,  and  whom  it  is  unpleasant  and  difficult 
to  get  rid  of  in  case  of  sickness  or  breakdown  of 
any  sort.  The  work  is  paid  for  when  furnished, 
and  the  main  trouble  of  administration  saved.  It 
is  only  necessary  to  have  a  brief  report  from  time 
to  time,  showing  that  the  work  is  actually  going 
on. 

I  began  with  a  careful  examination  of  the  rela- 
tion of  prices  to  work,  making  an  estimate  of  the 
time  probably  necessary  to  do  each  job.  Among 
the  performers  of  the  annual  work  were  several 
able  and  eminent  professors  at  various  universities 
and  schools.  I  found  that  they  were  being  paid 
at  pretty  high  professional  prices.  I  recall  with 
great  satisfaction  that  I  was  able  to  reduce  the 
prices  and,  step  by  step,  concentrate  all  the  work 
in  Washington,  without  detriment  to  the  pleasant 
relations  I  sustained  with  these  men,  some  of  them 
old  and  intimate  friends.  These  economies  went 
on  increasing  year  by  year,  and  every  dollar  that 
was  saved  went  into  the  work  of  making  the  tables 
necessary  for  the  future  use  of  the  Ephemeris. 

The  programme  of  work  which  I  mapped  out, 
involved,  as  one  branch  of  it,  a  discussion  of  all 
the  observations  of  value  on  the  positions  of  the 


THE  AUTHOR'S  SCIENTIFIC   WORK  217 

sun,  moon,  and  planets,  and  incidentally,  on  the 
bright  fixed  stars,  made  at  the  leading  observa- 
tories of  the  world  since  1750.  One  might  almost 
say  it  involved  repeating,  in  a  space  of  ten  or  fif- 
teen years,  an  important  part  of  the  world's  work 
in  astronomy  for  more  than  a  century  past.  Of 
course,  this  was  impossible  to  carry  out  in  all  its 
completeness.  In  most  cases  what  I  was  obliged 
practically  to  confine  myself  to  was  a  correction  of 
the  reductions  already  made  and  published.  Still, 
the  job  was  one  with  which  I  do  not  think  any 
astronomical  one  ever  before  attempted  by  a  single 
person  could  compare  in  extent.  The  number  of 
meridian  observations  on  the  sun,  Mercury,  Venus, 
and  Mars  alone  numbered  62,030.  They  were 
made  at  the  observatories  of  Greenwich,  Paris, 
Konigsberg,  Pulkowa,  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  —  but 
I  need  not  go  over  the  entire  list,  which  numbers 
thirteen. 

The  other  branches  of  the  work  were  such  as  I 
have  already  described,  —  the  computation  of  the 
formulae  for  the  perturbation  of  the  various  planets 
by  each  other.  As  I  am  writing  for  the  general 
reader,  I  need  not  go  into  any  further  technical 
description  of  this  work  than  I  have  already  done. 
Something  about  my  assistants  may,  however,  be 
of  interest.  They  were  too  numerous  to  be  all  re- 
called individually.  In  fact,  when  the  work  was  at 
its  height,  the  office  was,  in  the  number  of  its  sci- 
entific employees,  nearly  on  an  equality  with  the 
three  or  four  greatest  observatories  of  the  world. 


218    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

One  of  my  experiences  has  affected  my  judgment 
on  the  general  morale  of  the  educated  young  men  of 
our  country.  In  not  a  single  case  did  I  ever  have  an 
assistant  who  tried  to  shirk  his  duty  to  the  govern- 
ment, nor  do  I  think  there  was  more  than  a  single 
case  in  which  one  tried  to  contest  my  judgment  of 
his  own  merits,  or  those  of  his  work.  I  adopted 
the  principle  that  promotion  should  be  by  merit 
rather  than  by  seniority,  and  my  decisions  on  that 
matter  were  always  accepted  without  complaint. 
I  recall  two  men  who  voluntarily  resigned  when 
they  found  that,  through  failure  of  health  or 
strength,  they  were  unable  to  properly  go  on  with 
their  work.  In  frankness  I  must  admit  that  there 
was  one  case  in  which  I  had  a  very  disagreeable 
contest  in  getting  rid  of  a  learned  gentleman  whose 
practical  powers  were  so  far  inferior  to  his  theoret- 
ical knowledge  that  he  was  almost  useless  in  the 
office.  He  made  the  fiercest  and  most  determined 
fight  in  which  I  was  ever  engaged,  but  I  must,  in 
justice  to  all  concerned,  say  that  his  defect  was  not 
in  will  to  do  his  work  but  in  the  requisite  power. 
Officially  I  was  not  without  fault,  because,  in  the 
press  of  matters  requiring  my  attention,  I  had  en- 
trusted too  much  to  him,  and  did  not  discover  his 
deficiencies  until  some  mischief  had  been  done. 

Perhaps  the  most  eminent  and  interesting  man 
associated  with  me  during  this  period  was  Mr. 
George  W.  Hill,  who  will  easily  rank  as  the  great- 
est master  of  mathematical  astronomy  during  the 


THE  AUTHOR'S  SCIENTIFIC   WORK  219 

last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century.  The  only 
defect  of  his  make-up  of  which  I  have  reason 
to  complain  is  the  lack  of  the  teaching  faculty. 
Had  this  been  developed  in  him,  I  could  have 
learned  very  much  from  him  that  would  have 
been  to  my  advantage.  In  saying  this  I  have  one 
especial  point  in  mind.  In  beginning  my  studies 
in  celestial  mechanics,  I  lacked  the  guidance  of 
some  one  conversant  with  the  subject  on  its  prac-  ^ 
tical  side.  Two  systems  of  computing  planetary 
perturbations  had  been  used,  one  by  Leverrier, 
while  the  other  was  invented  by  Hansen.  The 
former  method  was,  in  principle,  of  great  simpli- 
city, while  the  latter  seemed  to  be  very  complex 
and  even  clumsy.  I  naturally  supposed  that  the 
man  who  computed  the  direction  of  the  planet 
Neptune  before  its  existence  was  known,  must  be  a 
master  of  the  whole  subject,  and  followed  the  lines 
he  indicated.  I  gradually  discovered  the  contrary, 
and  introduced  modified  methods,  but  did  not  en- 
tirely break  away  from  the  old  trammels.  Hill  had 
never  been  bound  by  them,  and  used  Hansen's 
method  from  the  beginning.  Had  he  given  me 
a  few  demonstrations  of  its  advantages,  I  should 
have  been  saved  a  great  deal  of  time  and  labor. 

The  part  assigned  to  Hill  was  about  the  most 
difficult  in  the  whole  work,  —  the  theory  of  Jupiter 
and  Saturn.  Owing  to  the  great  mass  of  these 
"  giant  planets,"  the  inequalities  of  their  motion, 
especially  in  the  case  of  Saturn,  affected  by  the 
attraction  of  Jupiter,  is  greater  than  in  the  case 


220    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

of  the  other  planets.  Leverrier  failed  to  attain  the 
necessary  exactness  in  his  investigation  of  their 
motion.  Hill  had  done  some  work  on  the  sub- 
ject at  his  home  in  Nyack  Turnpike  before  I  took 
charge  of  the  office.  He  now  moved  to  Washing- 
ton, and  seriously  began  the  complicated  numeri- 
cal calculations  which  his  task  involved.  I  urged 
that  he  should  accept  the  assistance  of  less  skilled 
computers ;  but  he  declined  it  from  a  desire  to  do 
the  entire  work  himself.  Computers  to  make  the 
duplicate  computations  necessary  to  guard  against 
accidental  numerical  errors  on  his  part  were  all 
that  he  required.  He  labored  almost  incessantly 
for  about  ten  years,  when  he  handed  in  the  man- 
uscript of  what  now  forms  Volume  IV.  of  the 
"  Astronomical  Papers." 

A  pleasant  incident  occurred  in  1884,  when  the 
office  was  honored  by  a  visit  from  Professor  John 
C.  Adams  of  England,  the  man  who,  independently 
of  Leverrier,  had  computed  the  place  of  Neptune, 
but  failed  to  receive  the  lion's  share  of  the  honor 
because  it  happened  to  be  the  computations  of  the 
Frenchman  and  not  his  which  led  immediately  to 
the  discovery  of  the  planet.  It  was  of  the  great- 
est interest  to  me  to  bring  two  such  congenial  spir- 
its as  Adams  and  Hill  together. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  more  impressive 
example  than  that  afforded  by  Hill's  career,  of  the 
difficulty  of  getting  the  public  to  form  and  act  upon 
sane  judgments  in  such  cases  as  his.  The  world 
has  the  highest  admiration  for  astronomical  research, 


THE  AUTHOR'S  SCIENTIFIC  WORK  221 

and  in  this  sentiment  our  countrymen  are  foremost. 
They  spend  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  to 
promote  it.  They  pay  good  salaries  to  professors 
who  chance  to  get  a  certain  official  position  where 
they  may  do  good  work.  And  here  was  per- 
haps the  greatest  living  master  in  the  highest  and 
most  difficult  field  of  astronomy,  winning  world- 
wide recognition  for  his  country  in  the  science,  and 
receiving  the  salary  of  a  department  clerk.  I 
never  wrestled  harder  with  a  superior  than  I  did 
with  Hon.  R.  W.  Thompson,  Secretary  of  the 
Navy,  about  1880,  to  induce  him  to  raise  Mr. 
Hill's  salary  from  $1200  to  $1400.  It  goes 
without  saying  that  Hill  took  even  less  interest 
in  the  matter  than  I  did.  He  did  not  work  for 
pay,  but  for  the  love  of  science.  His  little  farm  at 
Nyack  Turnpike  sufficed  for  his  home,  and  supplied 
his  necessities  so  long  as  he  lived  there,  and  all  he 
asked  in  Washington  was  the  means  of  going  on 
with  his  work.  The  deplorable  feature  of  the  situ- 
ation is,  that  this  devotion  to  his  science,  instead 
of  commanding  due  recognition  on  the  public  and 
official  side,  rather  tended  to  create  an  inadequate 
impression  of  the  importance  of  what  he  was  doing. 
That  I  could  not  secure  for  him  at  least  the  high- 
est official  consideration  is  among  the  regretful 
memories  of  my  official  life. 

Although,  so  far  as  the  amount  of  labor  is  con- 
cerned, Mr.  Hill's  work  upon  Jupiter  and  Saturn 
is  the  most  massive  he  ever  undertook,  his  really 
great  scientific  merit  consists  in  the  development 


222    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

of  a  radically  new  method  of  computing  the  in- 
equalities of  the  moon's  motion,  which  is  now 
being  developed  and  applied  by  Professor  E.  W- 
Brown.  His  most  marked  intellectual  character- 
istic is  the  eminently  practical  character  of  his 
researches.  He  does  not  aim  so  much  at  elegant 
mathematical  formulae,  as  to  determine  with  the 
greatest  precision  the  actual  quantities  of  which 
mathematical  astronomy  stands  in  need.  In  this 
direction  he  has  left  every  investigator  of  recent  or 
present  time  far  in  the  rear. 

After  the  computations  on  Jupiter  and  Saturn 
were  made,  it  was  necessary  to  correct  their  orbits 
and  make  tables  of  their  motions.  This  work  I 
left  entirely  in  Mr.  Hill's  hands,  the  only  require- 
ment being  that  the  masses  of  the  planets  and  other 
data  which  he  adopted  should  be  uniform  with 
those  I  used  in  the  rest  of  the  work.  His  tables 
were  practically  completed  in  manuscript  at  the 
beginning  of  1892.  When  they  were  through, 
doubtless  feeling,  as  well  he  might,  that  he  had 
done  his  whole  duty  to  science  and  the  govern- 
ment, Mr.  Hill  resigned  his  office  and  returned  to 
his  home.  During  the  summer  he  paid  a  visit 
to  Europe,  and  visiting  the  Cambridge  University, 
was  honored  with  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws, 
along  with  a  distinguished  company,  headed  by  the 
Duke  of  Edinburgh.  One  of  the  pleasant  things 
to  recall  was  that,  during  the  fifteen  years  of  our 
connection,  there  was  never  the  slightest  dissension 
or  friction  between  us. 


THE  AUTHOR'S  SCIENTIFIC  WORK  223 

I  may  add  that  the  computations  which  he  made 
on  the  theory  of  Jupiter  ancj  Saturn  are  all  pre- 
served complete  and  in  perfect  form  at  the  Nauti- 
cal Almanac  Office,  so  that,  in  case  any  question 
should  arise  respecting  them  in  future  generations, 
the  point  can  be  cleared  up  by  an  inspection. 

In  1874,  three  years  before  I  left  the  observa- 
tory, I  was  informed  by  Dr.  Henry  Draper  that  he 
had  a  mechanical  assistant  who  showed  great  fond- 
ness for  and  proficiency  in  some  work  in  mathe- 
matical astronomy.  I  asked  to  see  what  he  was 
doing,  and  received  a  collection  of  papers  of  a  re- 
markable kind.  They  consisted  mainly  of  some  of 
the  complicated  developments  of  celestial  mechan- 
ics. In  returning  them  I  wrote  to  Draper  that, 
when  I  was  ready  to  begin  my  work  on  the  planet- 
ary theories,  I  must  have  his  man,  —  could  he  pos- 
sibly be  spared  ?  But  he  came  to  me  before  the 
time,  while  I  was  carrying  on  some  investigations 
with  aid  afforded  by  the  Smithsonian  Institution. 
Of  course,  when  I  took  charge  of  the  Nautical 
Almanac  Office,  he  was  speedily  given  employment 
on  its  work.  His  name  was  John  Meier,  a  Swiss 
by  birth,  evidently  from  the  peasant  class,  but  who 
had  nevertheless  been  a  pupil  of  Professor  Ru- 
dolph Wolf  at  Zurich.  Emigrating  to  this  country, 
he  was,  during  the  civil  war,  an  engineer's  mate 
or  something  of  that  grade  in  the  navy.  He  was 
the  most  perfect  example  of  a  mathematical  ma- 
chine that  I  ever  had  at  command.  Of  original 


224    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

power,  —  the  faculty  of  developing  new  methods 
and  discovering  new  problems,  he  had  not  a  par- 
ticle. Happily  for  his  peace  of  mind,  he  was  to- 
tally devoid  of  worldly  amhition.  I  had  only  to 
prepare  the  fundamental  data  for  him,  explain  what 
was  wanted,  write  down  the  matters  he  was  to  start 
with,  and  he  ground  out  day  after  day  the  most 
complicated  algebraic  and  trigonometrical  compu- 
tations with  untiring  diligence  and  almost  unerring 
accuracy. 

But  a  dark  side  of  the  picture  showed  itself 
very  suddenly  and  unexpectedly  in  a  few  years. 
For  the  most  selfish  reasons,  if  for  no  others,  I 
desired  that  his  peace  of  mind  should  be  undis- 
turbed. The  result  was  that  I  was  from  time  to 
time  appealed  to  as  an  arbitrator  of  family  dissen- 
sions, in  which  it  was  impossible  to  say  which  side 
was  right  and  which  wrong.  Then,  as  a  prophy- 
lactic against  malaria,  his  wife  administered  doses 
of  whiskey.  The  rest  of  the  history  need  not  be 
told.  It  illustrates  the  maxim  that  "blood  will 
tell,"  which  I  fear  is  as  true  in  scientific  work  as  in 
any  other  field  of  human  activity. 

A  man  of  totally  different  blood,  the  best  in  fact, 
entered  the  office  shortly  before  Meier  broke  down. 
This  was  Mr.  Cleveland  Keith,  son  of  Professor 
Keuel  Keith,  who  was  one  of  the  professors  at  the 
observatory  when  it  was  started.  His  patience 
and  ability  led  to  his  gradually  taking  the  place 
of  a  foreman  in  supervising  the  work  pertaining 
to  the  reduction  of  the  observations,  and  the  con- 


THE  AUTHOR'S  SCIENTIFIC   WORK  225 

struction  of  the  tables  of  the  planets.  Without 
his  help,  I  fear  I  should  never  have  brought  the 
tables  to  a  conclusion.  He  died  in  1896,  just  as 
the  final  results  of  the  work  were  being  put  to- 
gether. 

High  among  the  troublesome  problems  with 
which  I  had  to  deal  while  in  charge  of  the  Nau- 
tical Almanac,  was  that  of  universal  time.  All 
but  the  youngest  of  my  readers  will  remember  the 
period  when  every  railway  had  its  own  meridian, 
by  the  time  of  which  its  trains  were  run,  which  had 
to  be  changed  here  and  there  in  the  case  of  the 
great  trunk  lines,  and  which  seldom  agreed  with 
the  local  time  of  a  place.  In  the  Pennsylvania 
station  at  Pittsburg  were  three  different  times ; 
one  that  of  Philadelphia,  one  of  some  point  far- 
ther west,  and  the  third  the  local  Pittsburg  time. 
The  traveler  was  constantly  liable  to  miss  a  train, 
a  connection,  or  an  engagement  by  the  doubt  and 
confusion  thus  arising. 

This  was  remedied  in  1883  by  the  adoption  of 
our  present  system  of  standard  times  of  four  dif- 
ferent meridians,  the  introduction  of  which  was 
one  of  the  great  reforms  of  our  generation.  When 
this  change  was  made,  I  was  in  favor  of  using  Wash- 
ington time  as  the  standard,  instead  of  going  across 
the  ocean  to  Greenwich  for  a  meridian.  But  those 
who  were  pressing  the  measure  wanted  to  have  a 
system  for  the  whole  world,  and  for  this  purpose 

the  meridian  of  Greenwich  was  the  natural  one. 

\   / 


226    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

Practically  our  purpose  was  served  as  well  by  the 
Greenwich  meridian  as  it  would  have  been  by  that 
of  Washington. 

The  year  following  this  change  an  international 
meridian  conference  was  held  at  Washington,  on 
the  invitation  of  our  government,  to  agree  upon  a 
single  prime  meridian  to  be  adopted  by  the  whole 
world  in  measuring  longitudes  and  indicating  time. 

Of  course  the  meridian  of  Greenwich  was  the 
only  one  that  would  answer  the  purpose.  This  had 
already  been  adopted  by  several  leading  maritime 
nations,  including  ourselves  as  well  as  Great  Brit- 
ain. It  was  merely  a  question  of  getting  the  others 
to  fall  into  line.  No  conference  was  really  neces- 
sary for  this  purpose,  because  the  dissentients  caused 
much  more  inconvenience  to  themselves  than  to  any 
one  else  by  their  divergent  practice.  The  French 
held  out  against  the  adoption  of  the  Greenwich 
meridian,  and  proposed  one  passing  through  Behr- 
ing  Strait.  I  was  not  a  member  of  the  confer- 
ence, but  was  invited  to  submit  my  views,  which  I 
did  orally.  I  ventured  to  point  out  to  the  French- 
men that  the  meridian  of  Greenwich  also  belonged 
to  France,  passing  near  Havre  and  intersecting 
their  country  from  north  to  south.  It  was  there- 
fore as  much  a  French  as  an  English  meridian,  and 
could  be  adopted  without  any  sacrifice  of  national 
position.  But  they  were  not  convinced,  and  will 
probably  hold  out  until  England  adopts  the  metric 
system,  on  which  occasion  it  is  said  that  they  will 
be  prepared  to  adopt  the  Greenwich  meridian. 


THE  AUTHOR'S  SCIENTIFIC  WORK  227 

One  proceeding  of  the  conference  illustrates  a 
general  characteristic  of  reformers.  Almost  with- 
out debate,  certainly  without  adequate  considera- 
tion, the  conference  adopted  a  recommendation  that 
astronomers  and  navigators  should  change  their 
system  of  reckoning  time.  Both  these  classes  have, 
from  time  immemorial,  begun  the  day  at  noon,  be- 
cause this  system  was  most  natural  and  convenient, 
when  the  question  was  not  that  of  a  measure  of 
time  for  daily  life,  but  simply  to  indicate  with 
mathematical  precision  the  moment  of  an  event. 
Navigators  had  begun  the  day  at  noon,  because  the 
observations  of  the  sun,  on  which  the  latitude  of  a 
ship  depends,  are  necessarily  made  at  noon,  and 
the  run  of  the  ship  is  worked  up  immediately  after- 
ward. The  proposed  change  would  have  produced 
unending  confusion  in  astronomical  nomenclature, 
owing  to  the  difficulty  of  knowing  in  all  cases  which 
system  of  time  was  used  in  any  given  treatise  or 
record  of  observations.  I  therefore  felt  compelled, 
in  the  general  interest  of  science  and  public  con- 
venience, to  oppose  the  project  with  all  my  power, 
suggesting  that,  if  the  new  system  must  be  put 
into  operation,  we  should  wait  until  the  beginning 
of  a  new  century. 

66 1  hope  you  will  succeed  in  having  its  adoption 
postponed  until  1900,"  wrote  Airy  to  me,  "and 
when  1900  comes,  I  hope  you  will  further  succeed 
in  having  it  again  postponed  until  the  year  2000." 

The  German  official  astronomers,  and  indeed 
most  of  the  official  ones  everywhere,  opposed  the 


228    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

change,  but  the  efforts  on  the  other  side  were 
vigorously  continued.  The  British  Admiralty  was 
strongly  urged  to  introduce  the  change  into  the 
Nautical  Almanac,  and  the  question  of  doing  this 
was  warmly  discussed  in  various  scientific  journals. 

One  result  of  this  movement  was  that,  in  1886, 
Kear-Admiral  George  H.  Belknap,  superintendent 
of  the  Naval  Observatory,  and  myself  were  di- 
rected to  report  on  the  question.  I  drew  up  a  very 
elaborate  report,  discussing  the  subject  especially 
in  its  relations  to  navigation,  pointing  out  in  the 
strongest  terms  I  could  the  danger  of  placing  in 
the  hands  of  navigators  an  almanac  in  which  the 
numbers  were  given  in  a  form  so  different  from 
that  to  which  they  were  accustomed.  If  they 
chanced  to  forget  the  change,  the  results  of  their 
computations  might  be  out  to  any  extent,  to  the 
great  danger  and  confusion  of  their  reckoning, 
while  not  a  solitary  advantage  would  be  gained  by 
it. 

There  is  some  reason  to  suppose  that  this  docu- 
ment found  its  way  to  the  British  Admiralty,  but 
I  never  heard  a  word  further  on  the  subject  ex- 
cept that  it  ceased  to  be  discussed  in  London.  A 
few  years  later  some  unavailing  efforts  were  made 
to  revive  the  discussion,  but  the  twentieth  century 
is  started  without  this  confusing  change  being 
introduced  into  the  astronomical  ephemerides  and 
nautical  almanacs  of  the  world,  and  navigators  are 
still  at  liberty  to  practice  the  system  they  find  most 
convenient. 


THE  AUTHOR'S  SCIENTIFIC  WORK  229 

In  1894  I  had  succeeded  in  bringing  so  much  of 
the  work  as  pertained  to  the  reduction  of  the  ob- 
servations and  the  determination  of  the  elements 
of  the  planets  to  a  conclusion.  So  far  as  the  larger 
planets  were  concerned,  it  only  remained  to  con- 
struct the  necessary  tables,  which,  however,  would 
be  a  work  of  several  years. 

With  the  year  1896  came  what  was  perhaps  the 
most  important  event  in  my  whole  plan.  I  have 
already  remarked  upon  the  confusion  which  per- 
vaded the  whole  system  of  exact  astronomy,  arising 
from  the  diversity  of  the  fundamental  data  made 
use  of  by  the  astronomers  of  foreign  countries  and 
various  institutions  in  their  work.  It  was,  I  think, 
rather  exceptional  that  any  astronomical  result  was 
based  on  entirely  homogeneous  and  consistent  data. 
To  remedy  this  state  of  things  and  start  the  exact 
astronomy  of  the  twentieth  century  on  one  basis 
for  the  whole  world,  was  one  of  the  objects  which 
I  had  mapped  out  from  the  beginning.  Dr.  A. 
M.  W.  Downing,  superintendent  of  the  British 
Nautical  Almanac,  was  struck  by  the  same  consid- 
eration and  animated  by  the  same  motive.  He  had 
especially  in  view  to  avoid  the  duplication  of  work 
which  arose  from  the  same  computations  being 
made  in  different  countries  for  the  same  result, 
whereby  much  unnecessary  labor  was  expended. 
The  field  of  astronomy  is  so  vast,  and  the  quantity 
of  work  urgently  required  to  be  done  so  far  beyond 
the  power  of  any  one  nation,  that  a  combination 
to  avoid  all  such  waste  was  extremely  desirable. 


230    THE  ^REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

When,  in  1895,  my  preliminary  results  were  pub- 
lished, he  took  the  initiative  in  a  project  for 
putting  the  idea  into  effect,  by  proposing  an  in- 
ternational conference  of  the  directors  of  the  four 
leading  ephemerides,  to  agree  upon  a  uniform  system 
of  data  for  all  computations  pertaining  to  the  fixed 
stars.  This  conference  was  held  in  Paris  in  May, 
1896.  After  several  days  of  discussion,  it  resolved 
that,  beginning  with  1901,  a  certain  set  of  con- 
stants should  be  used  in  all  the  ephemerides,  sub- 
stantially the  same  as  those  I  had  worked  out,  but 
without  certain  ulterior,  though  practically  unim- 
portant, modifications  which  I  had  applied  for  the 
sake  of  symmetry.  My  determination  of  the  posi- 
tions and  motions  of  the  bright  fixed  stars,  which 
I  had  not  yet  completed,  was  adopted  in  advance 
for  the  same  purpose,  I  agreeing  to  complete  it  if 
possible  in  time  for  use  in  1901.  I  also  agreed  to 
make  a  new  determination  of  the  constant  of  pre- 
cession, that  which  I  had  used  in  my  previous  work 
not  being  quite  satisfactory.  All  this  by  no  means 
filled  the  field  of  exact  astronomy,  yet  what  was 
left  outside  of  it  was  of  comparatively  little  im- 
portance for  the  special  object  in  view. 

More  than  a  year  after  the  conference  I  was  taken 
quite  by  surprise  by  a  vigorous  attack  on  its  work 
and  conclusions  on  the  part  of  Professor  Lewis 
Boss,  director  of  the  Dudley  Observatory,  warmly 
seconded  by  Mr.  S.  C.  Chandler  of  Cambridge,  the 
editor  of  the  "  Astronomical  Journal."  The  main 
grounds  of  attack  were  two  in  number.  The  time 


THE  AUTHOR'S  SCIENTIFIC   WORK  231 

was  not  ripe  for  concluding  upon  a  system  of  per- 
manent astronomical  standards.  Besides  this,  the 
astronomers  of  the  country  should  have  been  con- 
sulted before  a  decision  was  reached. 

Ultimately  the  attack  led  to  a  result  which 
may  appear  curious  to  the  future  astronomer.  He 
will  find  the  foreign  ephemerides  using  uniform 
data  worked  out  in  the  office  of  the  "American 
Ephemeris  and  Nautical  Almanac  "  at  Washington 
for  the  years  beginning  with  1901.  He  will  find 
that  these  same  data,  after  being  partially  adopted 
in  the  ephemeris  for  1900,  were  thrown  out  in  1901, 
and  the  antiquated  ones  reintroduced  in  the  main 
body  of  the  ephemeris.  The  new  ones  appear 
simply  in  an  appendix. 

As,  under  the  operation  of  law,  I  should  be  re- 
tired from  active  service  in  the  March  following  the 
conference,  it  became  a  serious  question  whether  I 
should  be  able  to  finish  the  work  that  had  been 
mapped  out,  as  well  as  the  planetary  tables.  Mr. 
Secretary  Herbert,  on  his  own  motion  so  far  as  I 
know,  sent  for  me  to  inquire  into  the  subject.  The 
result  of  the  conference  was  a  movement  on  his 
part  to  secure  an  appropriation  somewhat  less  than 
the  highest  salary  of  a  professor,  to  compensate  me 
for  the  completion  of  the  work  after  my  retire- 
ment. The  House  Committee  on  Appropriations, 
ever  mindful  of  economy  in  any  new  item,  reduced 
the  amount  to  a  clerical  salary.  The  committee  of 
conference  compromised  on  a  mean  between  the 
two.  It  happened  that  the  work  on  the  stars  was 


232    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

not  specified  in  the  law,  —  only  the  tables  of  the 
planets.  In  consequence  I  had  no  legal  right  to 
go  on  with  the  former,  although  the  ephemerides  of 
Europe  were  waiting  for  the  results.  After  much 
trouble  an  arrangement  was  effected  under  which 
the  computers  on  the  work  were  not  to  be  prohib- 
ited from  consulting  me  in  its  prosecution. 

Astronomical  work  is  never  really  done  and  fin- 
ished. The  questions  growing  out  of  the  agree- 
ment or  non-agreement  of  the  tables  with  observa- 
tions still  remain  to  be  studied,  and  require  an  im- 
mense amount  of  computation.  In  what  country 
and  by  whom  these  computations  will  be  made  no 
one  can  now  tell.  The  work  which  I  most  regretted 
to  leave  unfinished  was  that  on  the  motion  of  the 
moon.  As  I  have  already  said,  this  work  is  com- 
plete to  1750.  The  computations  for  carrying  it  on 
from  1750  to  the  present  time  were  perhaps  three 
fourths  done  when  I  had  to  lay  them  aside.  In 
1902,  when  the  Carnegie  Institution  was  organ- 
ized, it  made  a  grant  for  supplying  me  with  the 
computing  assistance  and  other  facilities  necessary 
for  the  work,  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy 
allowed  me  the  use  of  the  old  computations.  Un- 
der such  auspices  the  work  was  recommenced  in 
March,  1903. 

So  far  as  I  can  recall,  I  never  asked  anything  from 
the  government  which  would  in  any  way  promote 
my  personal  interests.  The  only  exception,  if  such 
it  is,  is  that  during  the  civil  war  I  joined  with 
other  professors  in  asking  that  we  be  put  on  the 


THE  AUTHOR'S  SCIENTIFIC   WORK  233 

same  footing  with  other  staff  corps  of  the  navy  as 
regarded  pay  and  rank.  So  far  as  my  views  were 
concerned,  the  rank  was  merely  a  pro  forma  mat- 
ter, as  I  never  could  see  any  sound  reason  for  a 
man  pursuing  astronomical  duties  caring  to  have 
military  rank. 

In  conducting  my  office  also,  the  utmost  economy 
was  always  studied.  The  increase  in  the  annual 
appropriations  for  which  I  asked  was  so  small  that, 
when  I  left  the  office  in  1877,  they  were  just 
about  the  same  as  they  were  back  in  the  fifties, 
when  it  was  first  established.  The  necessary  funds 
were  saved  by  economical  administration.  All 
this  was  done  with  a  feeling  that,  after  my  retire- 
ment, the  satisfaction  with  which  one  could  look 
back  on  such  a  policy  would  be  enhanced  by  a 
feeling  on  the  part  of  the  representatives  of  the 
public  that  the  work  I  had  done  must  be  worthy 
of  having  some  pains  taken  to  secure  its  continu- 
ance in  the  same  spirit. 

I  do  not  believe  that  the  men  who  conduct  our 
own  government  are  a  whit  behind  the  foremost  of 
other  countries  in  the  desire  to  promote  science. 
If  after  my  retirement  no  special  measures  were 
deemed  necessary  to  secure  the  continuance  of  the 
work  in  which  I  had  been  engaged,  I  prefer  to  at- 
tribute it  to  adventitious  circumstances  rather  than/' 
to  any  undervaluation  of  scientific  research  by  our 
authorities. 


IX 

SCIENTIFIC   WASHINGTON 

IT  is  sometimes  said  that  no  man,  in  passing  away, 
leaves  a  place  which  cannot  be  equally  well  filled 
by  another.  This  is  doubtless  true  in  all  ordinary 
cases.  But  scientific  research,  and  scientific  affairs 
generally  at  the  national  capital,  form  an  exception 
to  many  of  the  rules  drawn  from  experience  in 
other  fields. 

Professor  Joseph  Henry,  first  secretary  of  the 
Smithsonian  Institution,  was  a  man  of  whom  it  may 
be  said,  without  any  reflection  on  men  of  our  gen- 
eration, that  he  held  a  place  which  has  never  been 
filled.  I  do  not  mean  his  official  place,  but  his 
position  as  the  recognized  leader  and  exponent  of 
scientific  interests  at  the  national  capital.  A  world- 
wide reputation  as  a  scientific  investigator,  exalted 
character  and  inspiring  presence,  broad  views  of 
men  and  things,  the  love  and  esteem  of  all,  com- 
bined to  make  him  the  man  to  whom  all  who  knew 
him  looked  for  counsel  and  guidance  in  matters 
affecting  the  interests  of  science.  Whether  any  one 
could  since  have  assumed  this  position,  I  will  not 
venture  to  say ;  but  the  fact  seems  to  be  that  no 
one  has  been  at  the  same  time  able  and  willing  to 
assume  it. 


SCIENTIFIC  WASHINGTON  235 

On  coming  to  Washington  I  soon  became  very 
intimate  with  Professor  Henry,  and  I  do  not  think 
there  was  any  one  here  to  whom  he  set  forth  his 
personal  wishes  and  convictions  respecting  the  pol- 
icy of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  and  its  relations 
to  the  government  more  freely  than  he  did  to  me. 
As  every  point  connected  with  the  history  and  policy 
of  this  establishment  is  of  world-wide  interest,  and 
as  Professor  Henry  used  to  put  some  things  in  a 
different  light  from  that  shed  upon  the  subject  by 
current  publications,  I  shall  mention  a  few  points 
that  might  otherwise  be  overlooked. 

It  has  always  seemed  to  me  that  a  deep  mystery 
enshrouded  the  act  of  Smithson  in  devising  his  for- 
tune as  he  did.  That  an  Englishman,  whose  con- 
nections and  associations  were  entirely  with  the 
intellectual  classes,  —  who  had  never,  so  far  as  is 
known,  a  single  American  connection,  or  the  slight- 
est inclination  toward  democracy,  —  should,  in  the 
intellectual  condition  of  our  country  during  the 
early  years  of  the  century,  have  chosen  its  govern- 
ment as  his  trustee  for  the  foundation  of  a  scientific 
institution,  does  of  itself  seem  singular  enough. 
What  seems  yet  more  singular  is  that  no  instruc- 
tions whatever  were  given  in  his  will  or  found  in 
his  papers  beyond  the  comprehensive  one  "  to  found 
an  institution  at  Washington  to  be  called  the  Smith- 
sonian Institution  for  the  increase  and  diffusion  of 
knowledge  among  men."  No  plan  of  the  institu- 
tion, no  scrap  of  paper  which  might  assist  in  the 
interpretation  of  the  mandate,  was  ever  discovered. 


236    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

Not  a  word  respecting  his  intention  was  ever  known 
to  have  been  uttered.  Only  a  single  remark  was 
ever  recorded  which  indicated  that  he  had  anything 
unusual  in  view.  He  did  at  one  time  say,  "My 
name  shall  live  in  the  memory  of  men  when  the 
titles  of  the  Northumberlands  and  the  Percys  are 
extinct  and  forgotten." 

One  result  of  this  failure  to  indicate  a  plan  for 
the  institution  was  that,  when  the  government  re- 
ceived the  money,  Congress  was  at  a  loss  what  to 
do  with  it.  Some  ten  years  were  spent  in  discuss- 
ing schemes  of  various  kinds,  among  them  that  of 
declining  the  gift  altogether.  Then  it  was  decided 
that  the  institution  should  be  governed  by  a  Board 
of  Regents,  who  should  elect  a  secretary  as  their 
executive  officer  and  the  administrator  of  the  in- 
stitution. The  latter  was  to  include  a  library,  a 
museum,  and  a  gallery  of  art.  The  plans  for  the 
fine  structure,  so  well  known  to  every  visitor  to 
the  capital,  were  prepared,  the  building  was  started, 
the  regents  organized,  and  Professor  Henry  made 
secretary. 

"We  might  almost  say  that  Henry  was  opposed 
to  every  special  function  assigned  to  the  institu- 
tion by  the  organic  law.  He  did  not  agree  with 
me  as  to  any  mystery  surrounding  the  intentions 
of  the  founder.  To  him  they  were  perfectly  clear. 
Smithson  was  a  scientific  investigator ;  and  the  in- 
crease and  diffusion  of  knowledge  among  men 
could  be  best  promoted  on  the  lines  that  he  de- 
sired, by  scientific  investigation  and  the  publica- 


SCIENTIFIC  WASHINGTON  237 

tion  of  scientific  researches.  For  this  purpose  a 
great  building  was  not  necessary,  and  he  regretted 
all  the  money  spent  on  it.  The  library,  museum, 
and  gallery  of  art  would  be  of  only  local  advan- 
tage, whereas  "  diffusion  among  men  "  implied  all 
men,  whether  they  could  visit  Washington  or  not. 
It  was  clearly  the  business  of  the  government  to  , 
supply  purely  local  facilities  for  study  and  research, 
and  the  endowment  of  Smithson  should  not  be  used 
for  such  a  purpose. 

His  opposition  to  the  building  tinged  the  whole 
course  of  his  thought.  I  doubt  whether  he  was 
ever  called  upon  by  founders  of  institutions  of  any 
sort  for  counsel  without  his  warning  them  to  be- 
ware of  spending  their  money  in  bricks  and  mortar. 
The  building  being  already  started  before  he  took 
charge,  and  the  three  other  objects  being  sanc- 
tioned by  law,  he  was,  of  course,  hampered  in 
carrying  out  his  views.  But  he  did  his  utmost  to 
reduce  to  a  minimum  the  amount  of  the  fund  that 
should  be  devoted  to  the  objects  specified. 

This  policy  brought  on  the  most  animated  con- 
test in  the  history  of  the  institution.  It  was  essen- 
tial that  his  most  influential  assistants  should  share 
his  views  or  at  least  not  thwart  them.  This,  he 
found,  was  not  the  case.  The  librarian,  Mr.  C.  C. 
Jewett,  an  able  and  accomplished  man  in  the  line 
of  his  profession,  was  desirous  of  collecting  one  of 
the  finest  scientific  libraries.  A  contest  arose,  to 
which  Professor  Henry  put  an  end  by  the  bold 
course  of  removing  the  librarian  from  office.  Mr. 


238    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

Jewett  denied  his  power  to  do  this,  and  the  question 
came  before  the  board  of  regents.  The  majority 
of  these  voted  that  the  secretary  had  the  power 
to  remove  his  assistants.  Among  the  minority  was 
Kufus  Choate,  who  was  so  strongly  opposed  to  the 
action  that  he  emphasized  his  protest  against  it  by 
resigning  from  the  board. 

A  question  of  legal  interpretation  came  in  to 
make  the  situation  yet  more  difficult.  The  regents 
had  resolved  that,  after  the  completion  of  the 
building,  one  half  the  income  should  be  devoted 
to  those  objects  which  Professor  Henry  considered 
most  appropriate.  Meanwhile  there  was  no  limit 
to  the  amount  that  might  be  appropriated  to  these 
objects,  but  Mr.  Jewett  and  other  heads  of  de- 
partments wished  to  apply  the  rule  from  the  begin- 
ning. Henry  refused  to  do  so,  and  looked  with 
entire  satisfaction  on  the  slowness  of  completion  of 
what  was,  in  his  eyes,  an  undesirable  building. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  there  was  one  point 
which  Professor  Henry  either  failed  to  appreci- 
ate, or  perhaps  thought  unworthy  of  consideration. 
This  is,  the  strong  hold  on  the  minds  of  men  which 
an  institution  is  able  to  secure  through  the  agency 
of  an  imposing  building.  Saying  nothing  of  the 
artistic  and  educational  value  of  a  beautiful  piece 
of  architecture,  it  would  seem  that  such  a  structure 
has  a  peculiar  power  of  impressing  the  minds  of 
men  with  the  importance  of  the  object  to  which 
it  is  devoted,  or  of  the  work  going  on  within  it. 
Had  Professor  Henry  been  allowed  to  perform  all 


SCIENTIFIC  WASHINGTON  239 

the  functions  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  in  a 
moderate-sized  hired  house,  as  he  felt  himself  abun- 
dantly able  to  do,  I  have  very  serious  doubts  whether 
it  would  have  acquired  its  present  celebrity  and 
gained  its  present  high  place  in  the  estimation  of 
the  public. 

In  the  winter  of  1865  the  institution  suffered  an 
irreparable  loss  by  a  conflagration  which  destroyed 
the  central  portion  of  the  building.  At  that  time 
the  gallery  of  art  had  been  confined  to  a  collection 
of  portraits  of  Indians  by  Stanley.  This  collection 
was  entirely  destroyed.  The  library,  being  at  one 
end,  remained  intact.  The  lecture  room,  where 
courses  of  scientific  lectures  had  been  delivered  by 
eminent  men  of  science,  was  also  destroyed.  This 
event  gave  Professor  Henry  an  opportunity  of  tak- 
ing a  long  step  in  the  direction  he  desired.  He 
induced  Congress  to  take  the  Smithsonian  library 
on  deposit  as  a  part  of  its  own,  and  thus  relieve 
the  institution  of  the  cost  of  supporting  this  branch. 
The  Corcoran  Art  Gallery  had  been  founded  in  the 
mean  time,  and  relieved  the  institution  of  all  neces- 
sity for  supporting  a  gallery  of  art.  He  would 
gladly  have  seen  the  National  Museum  -  made  a 
separate  institution,  and  the  Smithsonian  building 
purchased  by  the  government  for  its  use,  but  he 
found  no  chance  of  carrying  this  out. 

After  the  death  of  Professor  Henry  the  Institu- 
tion grew  rapidly  into  a  position  in  which  it  might 
almost  claim  to  be  a  scientific  department  of  the 
government.  The  National  Museum,  remaining 


240    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

under  its  administration,  was  greatly  enlarged,  and 
one  of  its  ramifications  was  extended  into  the  Na- 
tional Zoological  Park.  The  studies  of  Indian 
ethnology,  begun  by  Major  J.  W.  Powell,  grew 
into  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology.  The  Astrophysi- 
cal  Observatory  was  established,  in  which  Professor 
Langley  has  continued  his  epoch-making  work  on 
the  sun's  radiant  heat  with  his  wonderful  bolometer, 
an  instrument  of  his  own  invention. 

Before  he  was  appointed  to  succeed  Professor 
Henry,  Professor  Baird  was  serving  as  United 
States  Fish  Commissioner,  and  continued  to  fill  this 
office,  without  other  salary  than  that  paid  by  the 
Smithsonian  Institution.  The  economic  importance 
of  the  work  done  and  still  carried  on  by  this  com- 
mission is  too  well  known  to  need  a  statement. 
About  the  time  of  Baird' s  death,  the  work  of  the 
commission  was  separated  from  that  of  the  Institu- 
tion by  providing  a  salary  for  the  commissioner. 

We  have  here  a  great  extension  of  the  idea  of 
an  institution  for  scientific  publications  and  research. 
I  recall  once  suggesting  to  Professor  Baird  the 
question  whether  the  utilization  of  the  institution 
founded  by  Smithson  for  carrying  on  and  promot- 
ing such  government  work  as  that  of  the  National 
Museum  was  really  the  right  thing  to  do.  He  re- 
plied, "  It  is  not  a  case  of  using  the  Smithsonian 
fund  for  government  work,  but  of  the  government 
making  appropriations  for  the  work  of  the  Smith- 
sonian Institution."  Between  the  two  sides  of  the 
question  thus  presented,  —  one  emphasizing  the 


SCIENTIFIC  WASHINGTON  241 

honor  done  to  Smithson  by  expanding  the  insti- 
tution which  bears  his  name,  and  the  other  aiming 
solely  at  the  best  administration  of  the  fund  which 
we  hold  in  trust  for  him,  —  I  do  not  pretend  to 
decide. 

On  the  academic  side  of  social  life  in  Washing- 
ton, the  numerous  associations  of  alumni  of  colleges 
and  universities  hold  a  prominent  place.  One  of 
the  earliest  of  these  was  that  of  Yale,  which  has 
held  an  annual  banquet  every  year,  at  least  since 
1877,  when  I  first  became  a  member.  Its  member- 
ship at  this  time  included  Mr.  W.  M.  Evarts,  then 
Secretary  of  State,  Chief  Justice  Waite,  Senator 
Dawes,  and  a  number  of  other  men  prominent  in 
political  life.  The  most  attractive  speaker  was  Mr. 
Evarts,  and  the  fact  that  his  views  of  education 
were  somewhat  conservative  added  much  to  the 
interest  of  his  speeches.  He  generally  had  some- 
thing to  say  in  favor  of  the  system  of  a  prescribed 
curriculum  in  liberal  education,  which  was  then 
considered  as  quite  antiquated.  When  President 
Dwight,  shortly  after  his  accession  to  office,  visited 
the  capital  to  explain  the  modernizing  of  the  Yale 
educational  system,  he  told  the  alumni  that  the 
college  now  offered  ninety-five  courses  to  under- 
graduates. Evarts  congratulated  the  coming  stu- 
dents on  sitting  at  a  banquet  table  where  they  had 
their  choice  of  ninety-five  courses  of  intellectual 
aliment. 

Perhaps  the  strongest  testimonial  of  the  interest 


242    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

attached  to  these  reunions  was  unconsciously  given 
by  President  Hayes.  He  had  received  an  honorary 
degree  from  Yale,  and  I  chanced  to  be  on  the  com- 
mittee which  called  to  invite  him  to  the  next  ban- 
quet. He  pleaded,  as  I  suppose  Presidents  always 
do,  the  multiplicity  of  his  engagements,  but  finally 
said,  — 

"  Well,  gentlemen,  I  will  come,  but  it  must  be 
on  two  well-understood  conditions.  In  the  first 
place,  I  must  not  be  called  to  my  feet.  You  must 
not  expect  a  speech  of  me.  The  second  condition 
is,  I  must  be  allowed  to  leave  punctually  at  ten 
o'clock." 

"  We  regret  your  conditions,  Mr.  President,"  was 
the  reply,  "but  must,  of  course,  accede  to  them,  if 
you  insist." 

He  came  to  the  banquet,  he  made  a  speech,  —  a 
very  good,  and  not  a  very  short  one,  —  and  he  re- 
mained, an  interested  hearer,  until  nearly  two  o'clock 
in  the  morning. 

In  recent  years  I  cannot  avoid  a  feeling  that 
a  change  has  come  over  the  spirit  of  such  associa- 
tions. One  might  gather  the  impression  that  the 
apothegm  of  Sir  William  Hamilton  needed  a  slight 
amendment. 

On  earth  is  nothing  great  but  Man, 
In  Man  is  nothing  great  but  Mind. 

Strike  out  the  last  word,  and  insert  "  Muscle." 
The  reader  will  please  not  misinterpret  this  remark. 
I  admire  the  physically  perfect  man,  loving  every- 
thing out  of  doors,  and  animated  by  the  spirit  that 


SCIENTIFIC  WASHINGTON  243 

takes  him  through  polar  snows  and  over  mountain 
tops.  But  I  do  not  feel  that  mere  muscular  prac- 
tice during  a  few  years  of  college  life  really  fosters 
this  spirit. 

Among  the  former  institutions  of  Washington 
of  which  the  memory  is  worth  preserving,  was  the 
Scientific  Club.  This  was  one  of  those  small  groups, 
more  common  in  other  cities  than  in  Washington, 
of  men  interested  in  some  field  of  thought,  who 
meet  at  brief  intervals  at  one  another's  houses,  per- 
haps listen  to  a  paper,  and  wind  up  with  a  supper. 
When  or  how  the  Washington  Club  originated,  I 
do  not  know,  but  it  was  probably  sometime  during 
the  fifties.  Its  membership  seems  to  have  been 
rather  ill  defined,  for,  although  I  have  always 
been  regarded  as  a  member,  and  am  mentioned  in 
McCulloch' s  book  as  such,1  I  do  not  think  I  ever 
received  any  formal  notice  of  election.  The  club 
was  not  exclusively  scientific,  but  included  in  its 
list  the  leading  men  who  were  supposed  to  be  inter- 
ested in  scientific  matters,  and  whose  company  was 
pleasant  to  the  others.  Mr.  McCulloch  himself, 
General  Sherman,  and  Chief  Justice  Chase  are  ex- 
amples of  the  members  of  the  club  who  were  of 
this  class. 

It  was  at  the  club  meetings  that  I  made  the  ac- 
quaintance of  General  Sherman.  His  strong  char- 
acteristics were  as  clearly  seen  at  these  evening 

1  Men  and  Measures  of  Half  a  Century,  by  Hugh  McCulloch. 
New  York  :  Chas.  Scribner's  Sons,  1889. 


244    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

gatherings  as  in  a  military  campaign.  His  restless- 
ness was  such  that  he  found  it  hard  to  sit  still, 
especially  in  his  own  house,  two  minutes  at  a  time. 
His  terse  sentences,  leaving  no  doubt  in  the  mind 
of  the  hearer  as  to  what  he  meant,  always  had  the 
same  snap.  One  of  his  military  letters  is  worth 
reviving.  When  he  was  carrying  on  his  campaign 
in  Georgia  against  Hood,  the  latter  was  anxious 
that  the  war  should  damage  general  commercial 
interests  as  little  as  possible ;  so  he  sent  General 
Sherman  a  letter  setting  forth  the  terms  and  condi- 
tions on  which  he,  Hood,  would  refrain  from  burn- 
ing the  cotton  in  his  line  of  march,  but  leave  it  be- 
hind, —  at  as  great  length  and  with  as  much  detail 
as  if  it  were  a  treaty  of  peace  between  two  nations. 
Sherman's  reply  was  couched  in  a  single  sentence : 
"  I  hope  you  will  burn  all  the  cotton  you  can,  for 
all  you  don't  burn  I  will."  When  he  introduced 
two  people,  he  did  not  simply  mention  their  names, 
but  told  who  each  one  was.  In  introducing  the 
adjutant-general  to  another  officer  who  had  just 
come  into  Washington,  he  added,  "  You  know  his 
signature." 

Mr.  McCulloch,  who  succeeded  Mr.  Chase  as 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  was  my  beau  id£al  of  an 
administrator.  In  his  personal  make-up,  he  was  as 
completely  the  opposite  of  General  Sherman  as  a 
man  well  could  be.  Deliberate,  impassive,  heavy 
of  build,  slow  in  physical  movement,  he  would  have 
been  supposed,  at  first  sight,  a  man  who  would  take 
life  easy,  and  concern  himself  as  little  as  possible 


SCIENTIFIC  WASHINGTON  245 

about  public  affairs.  But,  after  all,  there  is  a  qual- 
ity in  the  head  of  a  great  department  which  is  quite 
distinct  from  sprightliness,  and  that  is  wisdom. 
This  he  possessed  in  the  highest  degree.  The  im- 
press which  he  made  on  our  fiscal  system  was  not 
the  product  of  what  looked  like  energetic  personal 
action,  but  of  a  careful  study  of  the  prevailing  con- 
ditions of  public  opinion,  and  of  the  means  at  his 
disposal  for  keeping  the  movement  of  things  in  the 
right  direction.  His  policy  was  what  is  sometimes 
claimed,  and  correctly,  I  believe,  to  embody  the 
highest  administrative  wisdom :  that  of  doing  no- 
thing himself  that  he  could  get  others  to  do  for 
him.  In  this  way  all  his  energies  could  be  devoted 
to  his  proper  work,  that  of  getting  the  best  men  in 
office,  and  of  devising  measures  from  time  to  time 
calculated  to  carry  the  government  along  the  lines 
which  he  judged  to  be  best  for  the  public  interests. 

The  name  of  another  attendant  at  the  meetings 
of  the  club  has  from  time  to  time  excited  interest 
because  of  its  connection  with  a  fundamental  prin- 
ciple of  evolutionary  astronomy.  This  principle, 
which  looks  paradoxical  enough,  is  that  up  to  a 
certain  stage,  as  a  star  loses  heat  by  radiation  into 
space,  its  temperature  becomes  higher.  It  is  now 
known  as  Lane's  Law.  Some  curiosity  as  to  its 
origin,  as  well  as  the  personality  of  its  author,  has 
sometimes  been  expressed.  As  the  story  has  never 
been  printed,  I  ask  leave  to  tell  it. 

Among  the  attendants  at  the  meetings  of  the 
Scientific  Club  was  an  odd-looking  and  odd-man- 


246    THE  KEMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

nered  little  man,  rather  intellectual  in  appearance, 
who  listened  attentively  to  what  others  said,  but 
who,  so  far  as  I  noticed,  never  said  a  word  himself. 
Up  to  the  time  of  which  I  am  speaking,  I  did  not 
even  know  his  name,  as  there  was  nothing  but  his 
oddity  to  excite  any  interest  in  him. 

One  evening  about  the  year  1867,  the  club  met, 
as  it  not  infrequently  did,  at  the  home  of  Mr.  Mc- 
Culloch.  After  the  meeting  Mr.  W.  B.  Taylor, 
afterward  connected  with  the  Smithsonian  Institu- 
tion in  an  editorial  capacity,  accompanied  by  the 
little  man,  set  out  to  walk  to  his  home,  which  I  be- 
lieve was  somewhere  near  the  Smithsonian  grounds. 
At  any  rate,  I  joined  them  in  their  walk,  which 
led  through  these  grounds.  A  few  days  previous 
there  had  appeared  in  the  "  Reader,"  an  English 
weekly  periodical  having  a  scientific  character,  an 
article  describing  a  new  theory  of  the  sun.  The 
view  maintained  was  that  the  sun  was  not  a  molten 
liquid,  as  had  generally  been  supposed  up  to  that 
time,  but  a  mass  of  incandescent  gas,  perhaps  con- 
densed at  its  outer  surface,  so  as  to  form  a  sort  of 
immense  bubble.  I  had  never  before  heard  of  the 
theory,  but  it  was  so  plausible  that  there  could  be 
no  difficulty  in  accepting  it.  So,  as  we  wended  our 
way  through  the  Smithsonian  grounds,  I  explained 
the  theory  to  my  companions  in  that  ex  cathedra 
style  which  one  is  apt  to  assume  in  setting  forth  a 
new  idea  to  people  who  know  little  or  nothing  of 
the  subject.  My  talk  was  mainly  designed  for  Mr. 
Taylor,  because  I  did  not  suppose  the  little  man 


SCIENTIFIC  WASHINGTON  247 

would  take  any  interest  in  it.  I  was,  therefore, 
much  astonished  when,  at  a  certain  point,  he  chal- 
lenged, in  quite  a  decisive  tone,  the  correctness  of 
one  of  my  propositions.  In  a  rather  more  modest 
way,  I  tried  to  maintain  my  ground,  but  was  quite 
silenced  by  the  little  man  informing  us  that  he  had 
investigated  the  whole  subject,  and  found  so  and 
so  —  different  from  what  I  had  been  laying  down. 

I  immediately  stepped  down  from  the  pontifical 
chair,  and  asked  the  little  man  to  occupy  it  and 
tell  us  more  about  the  matter,  which  he  did. 
Whether  the  theorem  to  which  I  have  alluded  was 
included  in  his  statement,  I  do  not  recall.  If  it 
was  not,  he  told  me  about  it  subsequently,  and 
spoke  of  a  paper  he  had  published,  or  was  about 
to  publish,  in  the  "  American  Journal  of  Science." 
I  find  that  this  paper  appeared  in  Volume  L.  in 
1870. 

Naturally  I  cultivated  the  acquaintance  of  such 
a  man.  His  name  was  J.  Homer  Lane.  He  was 
quite  alone  in  the  world,  having  neither  family  nor 
near  relative,  so  far  as  any  one  knew.  He  had  for- 
merly been  an  examiner  or  something  similar  in  the 
Patent  Office,  but  under  the  system  which  prevailed 
in  those  days,  a  man  with  no  more  political  influ- 
ence than  he  had  was  very  liable  to  lose  his  posi- 
tion, as  he  actually  did.  He  lived  in  a  good  deal 
such  a  habitation  and  surroundings  as  men  like 
Johnson  and  Goldsmith  lived  in  in  their  time.  If 
his  home  was  not  exactly  a  garret,  it  came  as  near 
it  as  a  lodging  of  the  present  day  ever  does. 


248    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

After  the  paper  in  question  appeared,  I  called 
Mr.  Lane's  attention  to  the  fact  that  I  did  not  find 
any  statement  of  the  theorem  which  he  had  men- 
tioned to  me  to  be  contained  in  it.  He  admitted 
that  it  was  contained  in  it  only  impliedly,  and  pro- 
ceded  to  give  me  a  very  brief  and  simple  demon- 
stration. 

So  the  matter  stood,  until  the  centennial  year, 
1876,  when  Sir  William  Thomson  paid  a  visit  to 
this  country.  I  passed  a  very  pleasant  evening 
with  him  at  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  engaged 
in  a  discussion,  some  points  of  which  he  afterwards 
mentioned  in  an  address  to  the  British  Association. 
Among  other  matters,  I  mentioned  this  law,  ori- 
ginating with  Mr.  J.  Homer  Lane.  He  did  not 
think  it  could  be  well  founded,  and  when  I  at- 
tempted to  reproduce  Mr.  Lane's  verbal  demonstra- 
tion, I  found  myself  unable  to  do  so.  I  told  him 
I  felt  quite  sure  about  the  matter,  and  would  write 
to  him  on  the  subject.  When  I  again  met  Mr. 
Lane,  I  told  him  of  my  difficulty,  and  asked  him 
to  repeat  the  demonstration.  He  did  so  at  once, 
and  I  sent  it  off  to  Sir  William.  The  latter  imme- 
diately accepted  the  result,  and  published  a  paper 
on  the  subject,  in  which  the  theorem  was  made 
public  for  the  first  time. 

It  is  very  singular  that  a  man  of  such  acuteness 
never  achieved  anything  else  of  significance.  He 
was  at  my  station  on  one  occasion  when  a  total 
eclipse  of  the  sun  was  to  be  observed,  and  made  a 
report  on  what  he  saw.  At  the  same  time  he  called 


SCIENTIFIC   WASHINGTON  249 

my  attention  to  a  slight  source  of  error  with  which 
photographs  of  the  transit  of  Venus  might  be  af- 
fected. The  idea  was  a  very  ingenious  one,  and 
was  published  in  due  course. 

Altogether,  the  picture  of  his  life  and  death  re- 
mains in  my  memory  as  a  sad  one,  the  brightest 
gleam  being  the  fact  that  he  was  elected  a  member 
of  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences,  which  must 
have  been  to  him  a  very  grateful  recognition  of  his 
work  on  the  part  of  his  scientific  associates.  When 
he  died,  his  funeral  was  attended  only  by  a  few  of 
his  fellow  members  of  the  academy.  Altogether, 
I  feel  it  eminently  appropriate  that  his  name  should 
be  perpetuated  by  the  theorem  of  which  I  have 
spoken. 

If  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences  has  not 
proved  as  influential  a  body  as  such  an  academy 
should,  it  has  still  taken  such  a  place  in  science, 
and  rendered  services  of  such  importance  to  the 
government,  that  the  circumstances  connected  with 
its  origin  are  of  permanent  historic  interest.  As 
the  writer  was  not  a  charter  member,  he  cannot 
claim  to  have  been  "  in  at  the  birth,"  though  he 
became,  from  time  to  time,  a  repository  of  desultory 
information  on  the  subject.  There  is  abundant 
internal  and  circumstantial  evidence  that  Dr.  B.  A. 
Gould,  although  his  name  has,  so  far  as  I  am  aware, 
never  been  mentioned  in  this  connection,  was  a 
leading  spirit  in  the  first  organization.  On  the 
other  hand,  curiously  enough,  Professor  Henry  was 


250    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

not.  I  was  quite  satisfied  that  Bache  took  an  active 
part,  but  Henry  assured  me  that  he  could  not  be- 
lieve this,  because  he  was  so  intimate  with  Bache 
that,  had  the  latter  known  anything  of  the  matter, 
he  would  surely  have  consulted  him.  Some  recent 
light  is  thrown  on  the  subject  by  letters  of  Rear- 
Admiral  Charles  H.  Davis,  found  in  his  "  Life/'  as 
published  by  his  son.  Everything  was  carried  on 
in  the  greatest  secrecy,  until  the  bill  chartering  the 
body  was  introduced  by  Senator  Henry  Wilson  of 
Massachusetts.  Fifty  charter  members  were  named, 
and  this  number  was  fixed  as  the  permanent  limit 
to  the  membership.  The  list  did  not  include  either 
George  P.  Bond,  director  of  the  Harvard  Observa- 
tory, perhaps  the  foremost  American  astronomer  of 
the  time  in  charge  of  an  observatory,  nor  Dr.  John 
W.  Draper.  Yet  the  total  membership  in  the  sec- 
tion of  astronomy  and  kindred  sciences  was  very 
large.  A  story  to  which  I  give  credence  was  that 
the  original  list,  as  handed  to  Senator  Wilson,  did 
not  include  the  name  of  William  B.  Rogers,  who 
was  then  founding  the  Institute  of  Technology. 
The  senator  made  it  a  condition  that  room  for 
Rogers  should  be  found,  and  his  wish  was  acceded 
to.  It  is  of  interest  that  the  man  thus  added  to 
the  academy  by  a  senator  afterward  became  its 
president,  and  proved  as  able  and  popular  a  pre- 
siding officer  as  it  ever  had. 

The  governmental  importance  of  the  academy 
arose  from  the  fact  that  its  charter  made  it  the 
scientific  adviser  of  the  government,  by  providing 


SCIENTIFIC   WASHINGTON  251 

that  it  should  "investigate,  examine,  experiment, 
and  report  upon  any  subject  of  science  or  art " 
whenever  called  upon  by  any  department  of  the 
government.  In  this  respect  it  was  intended  to 
perform  the  same  valuable  functions  for  the  gov- 
ernment that  are  expected  of  the  national  scientific 
academies  or  societies  of  foreign  countries. 

The  academy  was  empowered  to  make  its  own 
constitution.  That  first  adopted  was  sufficiently 
rigid  and  complex.  Following  the  example  of 
European  bodies  of  the  same  sort,  it  was  divided 
into  two  classes,  one  of  mathematical  and  physi- 
cal, the  other  of  natural  science.  Each  of  these 
classes  was  divided  into  sections.  A  very  elaborate 
system  of  procedure  for  the  choice  of  new  members 
was  provided.  Any  member  absent  from  four  con- 
secutive stated  meetings  of  the  academy  had  his 
name  stricken  from  the  roll  unless  he  communicated 
a  valid  reason  for  his  absence.  Notwithstanding 
this  requirement,  the  academy  had  no  funds  to  de- 
fray the  traveling  expenses  of  members,  nor  did 
the  government  ever  appropriate  money  for  this 
purpose. 

For  seven  years  it  became  increasingly  doubtful 
whether  the  organization  would  not  be  abandoned. 
Several  of  the  most  eminent  members  took  no  in- 
terest whatever  in  the  academy,  —  did  not  attend 
the  meetings,  but  did  tender  their  resignations, 
which,  however,  were  not  accepted.  This  went  on 
at  such  a  rate  that,  in  1870,  to  avoid  a  threatened 
dissolution,  a  radical  change  was  made  in  the  con- 


252    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

stitution.  Congress  was  asked  to  remove  the  re- 
striction upon  the  number  of  members,  which  it 
promptly  did.  Classes  and  sections  were  entirely 
abandoned.  The  members  formed  but  a  single 
body.  The  method  of  election  was  simplified,  — 
too  much  simplified,  in  fact. 

The  election  of  new  members  is,  perhaps,  the 
most  difficult  and  delicate  function  of  such  an  or- 
ganization. It  is  one  which  cannot  be  performed  to 
public  satisfaction,  nor  without  making  many  mis- 
takes ;  and  the  avoidance  of  the  latter  is  vastly  more 
difficult  when  the  members  are  so  widely  separated 
and  have  little  opportunity  to  discuss  in  advance 
the  merits  of  the  men  from  whom  a  selection  is 
to  be  made.  An  ideal  selection  cannot  be  made 
until  after  a  man  is  dead,  so  that  his  work  can  be 
summed  up  ;  but  I  think  it  may  fairly  be  said  that, 
on  the  whole,  the  selections  have  been  as  good  as 
could  be  expected  under  the  conditions. 

Notwithstanding  the  indifference  of  the  govern- 
ment to  the  possible  benefits  that  the  academy 
might  render  it,  it  has  —  in  addition  to  numerous 
reports  on  minor  subjects  —  made  two  of  capital 
importance  to  the  public  welfare.  One  of  these 
was  the  planning  of  the  United  States  Geological 
Survey,  the  other  the  organization  of  a  forestry 
system  for  the  United  States. 

During  the  years  1870-77,  besides  several  tem- 
porary surveys  or  expeditions  which  had  from  time 
to  time  been  conducted  under  the  auspices  of  the 
government,  there  were  growing  up  two  permanent 


SCIENTIFIC  WASHINGTON  253 

surveys  of  the  territories.  One  of  these  was  the" 
Geographical  Survey  of  territories  west  of  the 
100th  meridian,  under  the  Chief  of  Engineers  of 
the  Army;  the  other  was  the  Geological  Survey 
of  the  territories  under  the  Interior  Department, 
of  which  the  chief  was  Professor  F.  V.  Hayden. 

The  methods  adopted  by  the  two  chiefs  to  gain 
the  approval  of  the  public  and  the  favoring  smiles 
of  Congress  were  certainly  very  different.  Wheel- 
er's efforts  were  made  altogether  by  official  methods 
and  through  official  channels.  Hayden  considered 
it  his  duty  to  give  the  public  every  possible  oppor- 
tunity to  see  what  he  was  doing  and  to  judge  his 
work.  His  efforts  were  chronicled  at  length  in 
the  public  prints.  His  summers  were  spent  in  the 
field,  and  his  winters  were  devoted  to  working  up 
results  and  making  every  effort  to  secure  influence. 
An  attractive  personality  and  extreme  readiness  to 
show  every  visitor  all  that  there  was  to  be  seen  in 
his  collections,  facilitated  his  success.  One  day  a 
friend  introduced  a  number  of  children  with  an  ex- 
pression of  doubt  as  to  the  little  visitors  being  wel- 
come. "  Oh,  I  always  like  to  have  the  children 
come  here,"  he  replied,  "  they  influence  their  par- 
ents." He  was  so  successful  in  his  efforts  that  his 
organization  grew  apace,  and  soon  developed  into 
the  Geological  Survey  of  the  Territories. 

Ostensibly  the  objects  of  the  two  organizations 
were  different.  One  had  military  requirements 
mainly  in  view,  especially  the  mapping  of  routes. 
Hayden's  survey  was  mainly  in  the  interests  of 


254    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

geology.  Practically,  however,  the  two  covered 
the  same  field  in  all  points.  The  military  survey 
extended  its  scope  by  including  everything  neces- 
sary for  a  complete  geographical  and  geological 
atlas.  The  geological  survey  was  necessarily  a 
complete  topographical  and  geological  survey  from 
the  beginning.  Between  1870  and  1877,  both 
were  engaged  in  making  an  atlas  of  Colorado,  on 
the  maps  of  which  were  given  the  same  topo- 
graphical features  and  the  same  lines  of  communi- 
cation. Parties  of  the  two  surveys  mounted  their 
theodolites  on  the  same  mountains,  and  triangulated 
the  same  regions.  The  Hayden  survey  published 
a  complete  atlas  of  Colorado,  probably  more  finely 
gotten  up  than  any  atlas  of  a  State  in  the  Union, 
while  the  Wheeler  survey  was  vigorously  engaged 
in  issuing  maps  of  the  same  territory.  No  effort 
to  prevent  this  duplication  of  work  by  making  an 
arrangement  between  the  two  organizations  led  to 
any  result.  Neither  had  any  official  knowledge  of 
the  work  of  the  other.  Unofficially,  the  one  was 
dissatisfied  with  the  political  methods  of  the  other, 
and  claimed  that  the  maps  which  it  produced  were 
not  fit  for  military  purposes.  Hayden  retorted 
with  unofficial  reflections  on  the  geological  expert- 
ness  of  the  engineers,  and  maintained  that  their 
work  was  not  of  the  best.  He  got  up  by  far  the 
best  maps ;  Wheeler,  in  the  interests  of  economy, 
was  willing  to  sacrifice  artistic  appearance  to  eco- 
nomy of  production.  We  thus  had  the  curious 
spectacle  of  the  government  supporting  two  inde- 


SCIENTIFIC  WASHINGTON  255 

pendent  surveys  of  the  same  region.  Various 
compromises  were  attempted,  but  they  all  came  to 
nothing.  The  state  of  things  was  clear  enough  to 
Congress,  but  the  repugnance  of  our  national  legis- 
lature to  the  adoption  of  decisive  measures  of  any 
sort  for  the  settlement  of  a  disputed  administrative 
question  prevented  any  effective  action.  Infant 
bureaus  may  quarrel  with  each  other  and  eat  up 
the  paternal  substance,  but  the  parent  cannot  make 
up  his  mind  to  starve  them  outright,  or  even  to 
chastise  them  into  a  spirit  of  conciliation.  Un- 
able to  decide  between  them,  Congress  for  some 
years  pursued  the  policy  of  supporting  both  sur- 
veys. 

The  credit  for  introducing  a  measure  which 
would  certainly  lead  to  unification  is  due  to  Mr. 
A.  S.  Hewitt,  of  New  York,  then  a  member  of  the 
Committee  on  Appropriations.  He  proposed  to 
refer  the  whole  subject  to  the  National  Academy 
of  Sciences.  His  committee  accepted  his  view,  and 
a  clause  was  inserted  in  the  Sundry  Civil  Bill  of 
June  30,  1878,  requiring  the  academy  at  its  next 
meeting  to  take  the  matter  into  consideration  and 
report  to  Congress  "  as  soon  thereafter  as  may  be 
practicable,  a  plan  for  surveying  and  mapping  the 
territory  of  the  United  States  on  such  general 
system  as  will,  in  their  judgment,  secure  the  best 
results  at  the  least  possible  cost." 

Several  of  the  older  and  more  conservative  mem- 
bers of  the  academy  objected  that  this  question 
was  not  one  of  science  or  art,  with  which  alone  the 


256    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

academy  was  competent  to  deal,  but  was  a  purely 
administrative  question  which  Congress  should 
settle  for  itself.  They  feared  that  the  academy 
would  be  drawn  into  the  arena  of  political  discus- 
sion to  an  extent  detrimental  to  its  future  and  wel- 
fare and  usefulness.  Whether  the  exception  was 
or  was  not  well  taken,  it  was  felt  that  the  academy, 
the  creature  of  Congress,  could  not  join  issue  with 
the  latter  as  to  its  functions,  nor  should  an  oppor- 
tunity of  rendering  a  great  service  to  the  govern- 
ment be  lost  for  such  a  reason  as  this. 

The  plan  reported  by  the  academy  was  radical 
and  comprehensive.  It  proposed  to  abolish  all  the 
existing  surveys  of  the  territories  except  those 
which,  being  temporary,  were  completing  their 
work,  and  to  substitute  for  them  a  single  organiza- 
tion which  would  include  the  surveys  of  the  public 
lands  in  its  scope.  The  interior  work  of  the  Coast 
and  Geodetic  Survey  was  included  in  the  plan,  it 
being  proposed  to  transfer  this  bureau  to  the  Inte- 
rior Department,  with  its  functions  so  extended  as 
to  include  the  entire  work  of  triangulation. 

When  the  proposition  came  up  in  Congress  at 
the  following  session,  it  was  vigorously  fought 
by  the  Chief  of  Engineers  of  the  army,  and  by 
the  General  Land  Office,  of  which  the  surveying 
functions  were  practically  abolished.  The  Land 
Office  carried  its  point,  and  was  eliminated  from 
the  scheme.  General  Humphreys,  the  Chief  of 
Engineers,  was  a  member  of  the  academy,  but  re- 
signed on  the  ground  that  he  could  not  properly 


SCIENTIFIC  WASHINGTON  257 

remain  a  member  while  contesting  the  recommend- 
ations of  the  body.  But  the  academy  refused  to 
accept  the  resignation,  on  the  very  proper  ground 
that  no  obligation  was  imposed  on  the  members  to 
support  the  views  of  the  academy,  besides  which, 
the  work  of  the  latter  in  the  whole  matter  was  ter- 
minated when  its  report  was  presented  to  Congress. 

Although  this  was  true  of  the  academy,  it  was 
not  true  of  the  individual  members  who  had  taken 
part  in  constructing  the  scheme.  They  were  natu- 
rally desirous  of  seeing  the  plan  made  a  success, 
and,  in  the  face  of  such  vigorous  opposition,  this 
required  constant  attention.  A  dexterous  move- 
ment was  that  of  getting  the  measure  transferred 
from  one  appropriation  bill  to  another  when  it 
passed  over  to  the  Senate.  The  measure  at  length 
became  a  law,  and  thus  was  established  the  Geo- 
logical Survey  of  the  United  States,  which  was  to 
be  governed  by  a  Director,  appointed  by  the  Presi- 
dent, by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the 
Senate. 

Then,  on  March  4,  1879,  an  important  question 
arose.  The  right  man  must  be  placed  at  the  head 
of  the  new  bureau.  Who  is  he  ?  At  first  there 
seemed  to  be  but  one  voice  on  the  subject.  Pro- 
fessor Hayden  had  taken  the  greatest  pains  to  make 
known  the  work  of  his  survey,  not  only  to  Congress, 
but  to  every  scientific  society,  small  and  great,  the 
world  over.  Many  of  these  had  bestowed  their  ap- 
probation upon  it  by  electing  its  director  to  honor- 
ary membership.  It  has  been  said,  I  do  not  know 


258    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

how  truly,  that  the  number  of  these  testimonials 
exceeded  that  received  by  any  other  scientific  man 
in  America.  If  this  were  so,  they  would  have  to  be 
counted,  not  weighed.  It  was,  therefore,  not  sur- 
prising that  two  thirds  of  the  members  of  Congress 
were  said  to  have  sent  a  recommendation  to  the 
President  for  the  appointment  of  so  able  and  suc- 
cessful a  man  to  the  new  position.  The  powerful 
backing  of  so  respectable  a  citizen  as  Hon.  J.  D. 
Cox,  formerly  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  was  also 
heartily  proffered.  To  these  forces  were  added 
that  of  a  certain  number  of  geologists,  though  few 
or  none  of  them  were  leaders  in  the  science.  Had 
it  not  been  for  a  private  intimation  conveyed  to 
Secretary  Schurz  that  the  scientific  men  interested 
might  have  something  to  say  on  the  subject,  Hay- 
den  might  have  been  appointed  at  the  very  moment 
the  bill  was  signed  by  the  President. 

Notwithstanding  all  of  Hay  den's  merits  as  the 
energetic  head  of  a  survey,  the  leaders  in  the  move- 
ment considered  that  Mr.  Clarence  King  was  the 
better  qualified  for  the  duties  of  the  new  position. 
It  is  not  unlikely  that  a  preference  for  a  different 
method  of  influencing  Congress  than  that  which  I 
have  described,  was  one  of  the  reasons  in  favor  of 
Mr.  King.  He  was  a  man  of  charming  personality 
and  great  literary  ability.  Some  one  said  of  him 
that  he  could  make  a  more  interesting  story  out  of 
what  he  saw  during  a  ride  in  a  street  car  than 
most  men  could  with  the  best  material  at  their  dis- 
posal. His  "  Mountaineering  in  the  Sierra  Nevadas ' ? 


SCIENTIFIC  WASHINGTON  259 

was  as  interesting  an  account  of  Western  explora- 
tion as  has  ever  been  published.  I  understand  it 
was  suppressed  by  the  author  because  some  of  the 
characters  described  in  it  were  much  hurt  by  find- 
ing themselves  painted  in  the  book. 

Hopeless  though  the  contest  might  have  seemed, 
an  effort  was  made  by  three  or  four  of  the  men 
most  interested  to  secure  Mr.  King's  appointment. 
If  I  wanted  to  show  the  fallacy  of  the  common  im- 
pression that  scientific  men  are  not  fitted  for  prac- 
tical politics,  I  could  not  do  it  better  than  by  giving 
the  internal  history  of  the  movement.  This  I  shall 
attempt  only  in  the  briefest  way.  The  movers  in 
the  matter  divided  up  the  work,  did  what  they 
could  in  the  daytime,  and  met  at  night  at  Worm- 
ley's  Hotel  to  compare  notes,  ascertain  the  effect 
of  every  shot,  and  decide  where  the  next  one  should 
be  fired.  As  all  the  parties  concerned  in  the  matter 
have  now  passed  off  the  stage,  I  shall  venture  to 
mention  one  of  these  shots.  One  eminent  geolo- 
gist, whose  support  was  known  to  be  available,  had 
not  been  called  in,  because  an  impression  had  been 
formed  that  President  Hayes  would  not  be  willing 
to  consider  favorably  what  he  might  say.  After 
the  matter  had  been  discussed  at  one  or  two  meet- 
ings, one  of  the  party  proposed  to  sound  the  Pre- 
sident on  the  subject  at  his  next  interview.  So, 
when  the  occasion  arose,  he  gently  introduced  the 
name  of  the  gentleman. 

"  What  view  does  he  take  ?  "  inquired  the  Presi- 
dent. 


260    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

"  I  think  he  will  be  favorable  to  Mr.  King/'  was 
the  reply ;  "  but  would  you  give  great  weight  to 
his  opinion  ?  " 

"  I  would  give  great  weight  to  it,  very  great 
weight,  indeed/'  was  the  reply. 

This  expression  was  too  decided  in  its  tone  to 
leave  any  doubt,  and  the  geologist  in  question  was 
on  his  way  to  Washington  as  soon  as  electricity 
could  teh*  him  that  he  was  wanted.  When  the  time 
finally  came  for  a  decision,  the  President  asked  Sec- 
retary Schurz  for  his  opinion.  Both  agreed  that 
King  was  the  man,  and  he  was  duly  appointed. 

The  new  administration  was  eminently  success- 
ful. But  King  was  not  fond  of  administrative 
work,  and  resigned  the  position  at  the  end  of  a 
year  or  so.  He  was  succeeded  by  John  W.  Powell, 
under  whom  the  survey  grew  with  a  rapidity  which 
no  one  had  anticipated.  As  originally  organized, 
the  survey  was  one  of  the  territories  only,  but  the 
question  whether  it  should  not  be  extended  to  the 
States  as  well,  and  prepare  a  topographical  atlas  of 
the  whole  country,  was  soon  mooted,  and  decided 
by  Congress  in  the  affirmative.  For  this  extension, 
however,  the  original  organizers  of  the  survey  were 
in  no  way  responsible.  It  was  the  act  of  Congress, 
pure  and  simple. 

If  the  success  of  an  organization  is  to  be  mea- 
sured by  the  public  support  which  it  has  com- 
manded, by  the  extension  of  its  work  and  influence, 
and  by  the  gradual  dying  out  of  all  opposition,  it 
must  be  admitted  that  the  plan  of  the  academy 


SCIENTIFIC   WASHINGTON  261 

was  a  brilliant  success.  It  is  true  that  a  serious 
crisis  had  once  to  be  met.  While  Mr.  Cleveland 
was  governor  of  New  York,  his  experience  with  the 
survey  of  that  State  had  led  him  to  distrust  the 
methods  on  which  the  surveys  of  the  United  States 
were  being  conducted.  This  distrust  seems  to  have 
pervaded  the  various  heads  of  the  departments  un- 
der his  administration,  and  led  to  serious  charges 
against  the  conduct  of  both  the  Coast  and  Geolo- 
gical surveys.  An  unfavorable  report  upon  the 
administration  of  the  former  was  made  by  a  com- 
mittee especially  appointed  by  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  and  led  to  the  resignation  of  its  superin- 
tendent. But,  in  the  case  of  the  Geological  Sur- 
vey, the  attacks  were  mostly  conducted  by  the 
newspapers.  At  length,  Director  Powell  asked  per- 
mission of  Secretary  Lamar  to  write  him  a  letter  in 
reply.  His  answers  were  so  sweeping,  and  so  con- 
clusive on  every  point,  that  nothing  more  was  heard 
of  the  criticisms. 

The  second  great  work  of  the  academy  for  the 
government  was  that  of  devising  a  forestry  system 
for  the  United  States.  The  immediate  occasion 
for  action  in  this  direction  was  stated  by  Secretary 
Hoke  Smith  to  be  the  "  inadequacy  and  confusion 
of  existing  laws  relating  to  the  public  timber  lands 
and  consequent  absence  of  an  intelligent  policy  in 
their  administration,  resulting  in  such  conditions 
as  may,  if  not  speedily  stopped,  prevent  the  proper 
development  of  a  large  part  of  our  country." 

Even  more  than  in  the  case  of  the  Geological 


262    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

Survey  might  this  work  seem  to  be  one  of  admin- 
istration rather  than  of  science.  But  granting 
that  such  was  the  case,  the  academy  commanded 
great  advantages  in  taking  up  the  subject.  The 
commission  which  it  formed  devoted  more  than  a 
year  to  the  study,  not  only  of  the  conditions  in  our 
own  country,  but  of  the  various  policies  adopted 
by  foreign  countries,  especially  Germany,  and  their 
results.  As  in  the  case  of  the  Geological  Survey, 
a  radically  new  and  very  complete  system  of  for- 
estry administration  was  proposed.  Interests  hav- 
ing other  objects  than  the  public  good  were  as 
completely  ignored  as  they  had  been  before. 

The  soundness  of  the  conclusions  reached  by 
the  Academy  Commission  were  challenged  by  men 
wielding  great  political  power  in  their  respective 
States.  For  a  time  it  was  feared  that  the  academy 
would  suffer  rather  than  gain  in  public  opinion  by 
the  report  it  had  made.  But  the  moral  force  be- 
hind it  was  such  that,  in  the  long  run,  some  of 
the  severest  critics  saw  their  error,  and  a  plan  was 
adopted  which,  though  differing  in  many  details 
from  that  proposed,  was,  in  the  main,  based  on  the 
conclusion  of  the  commission.  The  Interior  De- 
partment, the  Geological  Survey,  and  the  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture  all  have  their  part  in  the 
work. 

Notwithstanding  these  signal  demonstrations  of 
the  valuable  service  which  the  academy  may  ren- 
der to  the  government,  the  latter  has  done  nothing 
for  it.  The  immediate  influence  of  the  leading 


SCIENTIFIC   WASHINGTON  263 

scientific  men  in  public  affairs  has  perhaps  been 
diminished  as  much  in  one  direction  as  it  has  been 
increased  in  another  by  the  official  character  of  the 
organization.  The  very  fact  that  the  members  of 
the  academy  belong  to  a  body  which  is,  officially, 
the  scientific  adviser  of  the  government,  prevents 
them  from  coming  forward  to  exercise  that  indi- 
vidual influence  which  they  might  exercise  were 
no  such  body  in  existence. 

The  academy  has  not  even  a  place  of  meeting, 
nor  is  a  repository  for  its  property  and  records 
provided  for  it.  Although  it  holds  in  trust  large 
sums  which  have  been  bequeathed  from  time  to 
time  by  its  members  for  promoting  scientific  inves- 
tigation, and  is,  in  this  way,  rendering  an  impor- 
tant service  to  the  progress  of  knowledge,  it  has 
practically  no  income  of  its  own  except  the  con- 
tributions of  its  own  members,  nearly  all  of  whom 
are  in  the  position  described  by  the  elder  Agassiz, 
of  having  "no  time  to  make  money." 

Among  the  men  who  have  filled  the  office  of  presi- 
dent of  the  academy,  Professor  0.  C.  Marsh  was  per- 
haps the  one  whose  activity  covered  the  widest  field. 
Though  long  well  known  in  scientific  circles,  he 
first  came  into  public  prominence  by  his  exposure 
of  the  frauds  practiced  by  contractors  in  furnish- 
ing supplies  for  the  Indians.  This  business  had 
fallen  into  the  hands  of  a  small  ring  of  contractors 
known  as  the  "  Indian  ring,"  who  knew  the  ropes 
so  well  that  they  could  bid  below  any  competitor 
and  yet  manage  things  so  as  to  gain  a  handsome 


264    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

profit  out  of  the  contracts.  In  the  course  of  his 
explorations  Marsh  took  pains  to  investigate  the 
whole  matter,  and  published  his  conclusions  first 
in  the  New  York  "  Tribune/'  and  then  more  fully 
in  pamphlet  form,  taking  care  to  have  public  atten- 
tion called  to  the  subject  so  widely  that  the  author- 
ities would  have  to  notice  it.  In  doing  so,  Mr. 
Delano,  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  spoke  of  them  as 
charges  made  by  "  a  Mr.  Marsh."  This  method 
of  designating  such  a  man  was  made  effective  use 
of  by  Mr.  Delano's  opponents  in  the  case. 

Although  the  investigation  which  followed  did 
not  elicit  all  the  facts,  it  had  the  result  of  calling 
the  attention  of  succeeding  Secretaries  of  the  In- 
terior to  the  necessity  of  keeping  the  best  outlook 
on  the  administration  of  Indian  affairs.  What  I 
believe  to  have  been  the  final  downfall  of  the  ring 
was  not  brought  about  until  Cleveland's  first  ad- 
ministration. Then  it  happened  in  this  way.  Mr. 
Lamar,  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  was  sharply 
on  the  lookout  for  frauds  of  every  kind.  As 
usual,  the  lowest  bid  for  a  certain  kind  of  blanket 
had  been  accepted,  and  the  Secretary  was  deter- 
mined to  see  whether  the  articles  furnished  actually 
corresponded  with  the  requirements  of  the  con- 
tract. It  chanced  that  he  had  as  his  appointment 
clerk  Mr.  J.  J.  S.  Hassler,  a  former  manufacturer 
of  woolen  goods.  Mr.  Hassler  was  put  on  the 
board  to  inspect  the  supplies,  and  found  that  the 
blankets,  although  to  all  ordinary  appearance  of  the 
kind  and  quality  required,  were  really  of  a  much 


SCIENTIFIC  WASHINGTON  265 

inferior  and  cheaper  material.  The  result  was  the 
enforced  failure  of  the  contractor,  and,  I  believe, 
the  end  of  the  Indian  ring. 

Marsh's  explorations  in  search  of  fossil  remains 
of  the  animals  which  once  roamed  over  the  west- 
ern parts  of  our  continent  were  attended  by  adven- 
tures of  great  interest,  which  he  long  had  the 
intention  of  collecting  and  publishing  in  book 
form.  Unfortunately,  he  never  did  it,  nor,  so  far 
as  I  am  aware,  has  any  connected  narrative  of  his 
adventures  ever  appeared  in  print.  This  is  more 
to  be  regretted,  because  they  belong  to  a  state  of 
things  which  is  rapidly  passing  away,  leaving  few 
records  of  that  lifelike  sort  which  make  the  most 
impressive  picture. 

His  guide  during  his  early  explorations  was  a 
character  who  has  since  become  celebrated  in 
America  and  Europe  by  the  vivid  representations 
of  the  "  Wild  West "  with  which  he  has  amused  and 
instructed  the  dwellers  on  two  continents.  Marsh 
was  on  his  way  to  explore  the  region  in  the  Rocky 
Mountains  where  he  was  to  find  the  fossils  which 
have  since  made  his  work  most  celebrated.  The 
guide  was  burning  with  curiosity  as  to  the  object 
of  the  expedition.  One  night  over  the  campfire  he 
drew  his  chief  into  a  conversation  on  the  subject. 
The  latter  told  him  that  there  was  once  a  time 
when  the  Rocky  Mountains  did  not  exist,  and  that 
part  of  the  continent  was  a  level  plain.  In  the 
course  of  long  ages  mountains  rose,  and  animals 
ran  over  them.  Then  the  mountains  split  open  ; 


266    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

the  animals  died  and  left  their  bones  in  the  clefts. 
The  object  of  his  expedition  was  now  to  search 
for  some  of  these  bones. 

The  bones  were  duly  discovered,  and  it  was  not 
many  years  thereafter  before  the  Wild  West  Ex- 
hibition was  seen  in  the  principal  Eastern  cities. 
When  it  visited  New  Haven,  its  conductor  natu- 
rally renewed  the  acquaintance  of  his  former  patron 
and  supporter. 

"  Do  you  remember,  professor/'  said  he,  "  our 
talk  as  we  were  going  on  your  expedition  to  the 
Rockies,  —  how  you  told  me  about  the  mountains 
rising  up  and  being  split  open  and  the  bones  of 
animals  being  lost  in  there,  and  how  you  were 
going  to  get  them  ?  " 

"  Oh,  yes,"  said  the  other,  "  I  remember  it  very 
well." 

"  Well,  professor,  do  you  know,  when  you  told 
me  all  that  I  r'ally  thought  you  was  puttin'  up  a 
job  on  me." 

The  result  was  a  friendship  between  the  two 
men,  which  continued  during  Marsh's  whole  life. 
When  the  one  felt  that  he  ought  no  longer  to 
spend  all  the  money  he  earned,  he  consulted  Marsh 
on  the  subject  of  "  salting  it  down,"  and  doubtless 
got  good  advice. 

As  an  exposer  of  humbugs  Marsh  took  a  pro- 
minent place.  One  of  these  related  to  the  so-called 
"  Cardiff  Giant."  Sometime  in  1869  the  news- 
papers announced  the  discovery  in  northern  New 
York,  near  the  Canadian  border,  of  an  extraordi- 


SCIENTIFIC   WASHINGTON  267 

nary  fossil  man,  or  colossal  statue,  people  were  not 
sure  which,  eight  or  ten  feet  high.  It  was  found 
several  feet  below  the  ground  while  digging  a  well. 
Men  of  some  scientific  repute,  including  even  one 
so  eminent  as  Professor  James  Hall,  had  endorsed 
the  genuineness  of  the  find,  and,  on  the  strength 
of  this,  it  was  taken  around  to  show  the  public. 
In  the  course  of  a  journey  through  New  York 
State,  Marsh  happened  to  pass  through  the  town 
where  the  object  was  on  exhibition.  His  train 
stopped  forty  minutes  for  dinner,  which  would  give 
him  time  to  drive  to  the  place  and  back,  and  leave 
a  margin  of  about  fifteen  minutes  for  an  examina- 
tion of  the  statue.  Hardly  more  than  a  glance  was 
necessary  to  show  its  fraudulent  character.  Inside 
the  ears  the  marks  of  a  chisel  were  still  plainly  vis- 
ible, showing  that  the  statue  had  been  newly  cut. 
One  of  the  most  curious  features  was  that  the  stone 
had  not  been  large  enough  to  make  the  complete 
statue,  so  that  the  surface  was,  in  one  place,  still 
in  the  rough.  The  object  had  been  found  in  wet 
ground.  Its  material  was  sulphate  of  lime,  the 
slight  solubility  of  which  would  have  been  sufficient 
to  make  it  dissolve  entirely  away  in  the  course  of 
centuries.  The  absence  of  any  degradation  showed 
that  the  thing  was  comparatively  new.  On  the 
strength  of  this,  Marsh  promptly  denounced  the 
affair  as  a  humbug.  Only  a  feeble  defense  was 
made  for  it,  and,  a  year  or  two  later,  the  whole 
story  came  out.  It  had  been  designed  and  exe- 
cuted somewhere  in  the  Northwest,  transported  to 


268    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

the  place  where  discovered,  and  buried,  to  be  after- 
ward dug  up  and  reported  as  a  prehistoric  wonder. 
Only  a  few  years  ago  the  writer  had  an  opportu- 
nity of  seeing  with  what  wonderful  ease  intelligent 
men  can  be  imposed  upon  by  these  artificial  antiqui- 
ties. The  would-be  exhibitor  of  a  fossil  woman, 
found  I  know  not  where,  appeared  in  Washington. 
He  had  not  discovered  the  fossil  himself,  but  had 
purchased  it  for  some  such  sum  as  $100,  on  the 
assurance  of  its  genuine  character.  He  seems,  how- 
ever, to  have  had  some  misgivings  on  the  subject, 
and,  being  an  honest  fellow,  invited  some  Washing- 
ton scientific  men  to  examine  it  in  advance  of  a 
public  exhibition.  The  first  feature  to  strike  the 
critical  observer  was  that  the  arms  of  the  fossil 
were  crossed  over  the  breast  in  the  most  approved 
undertaker's  fashion,  showing  that  if  the  woman 
had  ever  existed,  she  had  devoted  her  dying  mo- 
ments to  arranging  a  pose  for  the  approval  of  pos- 
terity. Little  more  than  a  glance  was  necessary  to 
show  that  the  fossil  was  simply  baked  clay.  Yet 
the  limbs  were  hard  and  stiff.  One  of  the  specta- 
tors therefore  asked  permission  of  the  owner  to 
bore  with  an  auger  into  the  leg  and  see  what  was 
inside.  A  few  moments'  work  showed  that  the 
bone  of  the  leg  was  a  bar  of  iron,  around  which 
clay  had  been  moulded  and  baked.  I  must  do  the 
crestfallen  owner  the  justice  to  say  that  his  anxiety 
to  convince  the  spectators  of  his  own  good  faith  in 
the  matter  far  exceeded  his  regret  at  the  pecuniary 
loss  which  he  had  suffered. 


SCIENTIFIC  WASHINGTON  269 

Another  amusing  experience  that  Marsh  had 
with  a  would-be  fossil  arose  out  of  the  discovery 
here  and  there  in  Connecticut  of  the  fossil  foot- 
prints of  birds.  Shortly  after  a  find  of  this  kind 
had  been  announced,  a  farmer  drove  his  wagon  up 
in  front  of  the  Peabody  Museum,  called  on  the 
professor,  and  told  him  he  had  dug  up  something 
curious  on  his  farm,  and  he  wished  the  professor 
would  tell  him  what  it  was.  He  thought  it  looked 
like  the  footprints  of  a  bird  in  a  stone,  but  he  was 
not  quite  sure. 

Marsh  went  out  and  looked  at  the  stone.  A 
single  glance  was  enough. 

"  Oh,  I  see  what  they  are.  They  are  the  foot- 
prints of  the  domestic  turkey.  And  the  oddest 
part  of  it  is,  they  are  all  made  with  the  right 
foot." 

The  simple-minded  countryman,  in  making  the 
prints  with  the  turkey's  foot,  had  overlooked  the 
difference  between  the  right  and  left  foot,  and  the 
consequent  necessity  of  having  the  tracks  which 
pertained  to  the  two  feet  alternate. 

Washington  is  naturally  a  centre  of  information 
on  all  subjects  relating  to  the  aboriginal  tribes 
of  America  and  to  life  on  the  plains  generally. 
Besides  the  Geological  Survey,  the  Bureau  of  Eth- 
nology has  been  an  active  factor  in  this  line.  An 
official  report  cannot  properly  illustrate  life  in  all 
its  aspects,  and  therefore  should  be  supplemented 
by  the  experiences  of  leading  explorers.  This  is  all 


270    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

the  more  necessary  if,  as  seems  to  be  the  case,  the 
peculiar  characteristics  of  the  life  in  question  are 
being  replaced  by  those  more  appropriate  to  civili- 
zation. Yet  the  researches  of  the  bureau  in  ques- 
tion are  not  carried  on  in  any  narrow  spirit,  and 
will  supply  the  future  student  of  humanity  with 
valuable  pictures  of  the  most  heroic  of  all  races, 
and  yet  doomed,  apparently,  to  ultimate  extinction. 
I  do  not  think  I  ever  saw  a  more  impressive  human 
figure  and  face  than  those  of  Chief  Joseph  as  he 
stood  tall,  erect,  and  impassive,  at  a  President's 
reception  in  the  winter  of  1903.  He  was  attired 
in  all  the  brilliancy  of  his  official  costume ;  but  not 
a  muscle  of  his  strongly  marked  face  betrayed  the 
sentiments  with  which  he  must  have  gazed  on  the 
shining  uniforms  passing  before  him. 


SCIENTIFIC    ENGLAND 

MY  first  trip  to  Europe,  mentioned  in  the  last 
chapter,  was  made  with  my  wife,  when  the  old- 
est transatlantic  line  was  still  the  fashionable  one. 
The  passenger  on  a  Cunarder  felt  himself  amply 
compensated  for  poor  attendance,  coarse  food,  and 
bad  coffee  by  learning  from  the  officers  on  the 
promenade  deck  how  far  the  ships  of  their  line 
were  superior  to  all  others  in  strength  of  hull,  abil- 
ity of  captain,  and  discipline  of  crew.  Things  have 
changed  on  both  sides  since  then.  Although  the 
Cunard  line  has  completed  its  half  century  without 
having  lost  a  passenger,  other  lines  are  also  care- 
fully navigated,  and  the  Cunard  passenger,  so  far 
as  I  know,  fares  as  well  as  any  other.  Captain 
McMickan  was  as  perfect  a  type  of  the  old-fash- 
ioned captain  of  the  best  class  as  I  ever  saw.  His 
face  looked  as  if  the  gentlest  zephyr  that  had  ever 
fanned  it  was  an  Atlantic  hurricane,  and  yet 
beamed  with  Hibernian  good  humor  and  friendliness. 
He  read  prayers  so  well  on  Sunday  that  a  passenger 
assured  him  he  was  born  to  be  a  bishop.  One  day 
a  ship  of  the  North  German  Lloyd  line  was  seen 
in  the  offing  slowly  gaining  on  us.  A  passenger 
called  the  captain's  attention  to  the  fact  that  we 


272    THE  REMINISCENCES   OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

were  being  left  behind.  "  Oh,  they  're  very  lightly 
built,  them  German  ships ;  built  to  carry  German 
dolls  and  such  like  cargo." 

In  London  one  of  the  first  men  we  met  was 
Thomas  Hughes,  of  Rugby  fame,  who  made  us 
feel  how  worthy  he  was  of  the  love  and  esteem 
bestowed  upon  him  by  Americans.  He  was  able 
to  make  our  visit  pleasant  in  more  ways  than  one. 
Among  the  men  I  wanted  to  see  was  Mr.  John 
Stuart  Mill,  to  whom  I  was  attracted  not  only  by 
his  fame  as  a  philosopher  and  the  interest  with 
which  I  had  read  his  books,  but  also  because  he 
was  the  author  of  an  excellent  pamphlet  on  the 
Union  side  during  our  civil  war. 

On  my  expressing  a  desire  to  make  Mr.  Mill's 
acquaintance,  Mr.  Hughes  immediately  offered  to 
give  me  a  note  of  introduction.  Mill  lived  at 
Blackheath,  which,  though  in  an  easterly  direction 
down  the  Thames,  is  one  of  the  prettiest  suburbs 
of  the  great  metropolis.  His  dwelling  was  a  very 
modest  one,  entered  through  a  passage  of  trellis- 
work  in  a  little  garden.  He  was  by  no  means  the 
grave  and  distinguished-looking  man  I  had  expected 
to  see.  He  was  small  in  stature  and  rather  spare, 
and  did  not  seem  to  have  markedly  intellectual 
features.  The  cordiality  of  his  greeting  was  more 
than  I  could  have  expected ;  and  he  was  much 
pleased  to  know  that  his  work  in  moulding  English 
sentiment  in  our  favor  at  the  commencement  of 
the  civil  war  was  so  well  remembered  and  so  highly 
appreciated  across  the  Atlantic. 


SCIENTIFIC  ENGLAND  273 

As  a  philosopher,  it  must  be  conceded  that  Mr. 
Mill  lived  at  an  unfortunate  time.  While  his 
vigor  and  independence  of  thought  led  him  to 
break  loose  from  the  trammels  of  the  traditional 
philosophy,  modern  scientific  generalization  had 
not  yet  reached  a  stage  favorable  to  his  becoming 
a  leader  in  developing  the  new  philosophy.  Still, 
whatever  may  be  the  merits  of  his  philosophic 
theories,  I  believe  that  up  to  a  quite  recent  time 
no  work  on  scientific  method  appeared  worthy  to 
displace  his  "  System  of  Logic." 

A  feature  of  London  life  that  must  strongly  im- 
press the  scientific  student  from  our  country  is  the 
closeness  of  touch,  socially  as  well  as  officially,  be- 
tween the  literary  and  scientific  classes  on  the  one 
side  and  the  governing  classes  on  the  other.  Mr. 
Hughes  invited  us  to  make  an  evening  call  with 
him  at  the  house  of  a  cabinet  minister,  —  I  think 
it  was  Mr.  Goschen,  —  where  we  should  find  a 
number  of  persons  worth  seeing.  Among  those 
gathered  in  this  casual  way  were  Mr.  Gladstone, 
Dean  Stanley,  and  our  General  Burnside,  then 
grown  quite  gray.  I  had  never  before  met  Gen- 
eral Burnside,  but  his  published  portraits  were  so 
characteristic  that  the  man  could  scarcely  have 
been  mistaken.  The  only  change  was  in  the  color 
of  his  beard.  Then  and  later  I  found  that  a 
pleasant  feature  of  these  informal  "  at  homes,"  so 
universal  in  London,  is  that  one  meets  so  many 
people  he  wants  to  see,  and  so  few  he  does  not 
want  to  see. 


274    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

Congress  had  made  a  very  liberal  appropriation 
for  observations  of  the  solar  eclipse,  —  the  mak- 
ing of  which  was  one  object  of  my  visit,  —  to  be 
expended  under  the  direction  of  Professor  Peirce, 
superintendent  of  the  Coast  Survey.  Peirce  went 
over  in  person  to  take  charge  of  the  arrangements. 
He  arrived  in  London  with  several  members  of  his 
party  a  few  days  before  we  did,  and  about  the 
same  time  came  an  independent  party  of  my  fellow 
astronomers  from  the  Naval  Observatory,  consist- 
ing of  Professors  Hall,  Harkness,  and  Eastman. 
The  invasion  of  their  country  by  such  an  army  of 
American  astronomers  quite  stirred  up  our  English 
colleagues,  who  sorrowfully  contrasted  the  liberality 
of  our  government  with  the  parsimony  of  their  own, 
which  had,  they  said,  declined  to  make  any  pro- 
vision for  the  observations  of  the  eclipse.  Con- 
sidering that  it  was  visible  on  their  own  side  of  the 
Atlantic,  they  thought  their  government  might 
take  a  lesson  from  ours.  Of  course  we  could  not 
help  them  directly;  and  yet  I  suspect  that  our 
coming,  or  at  least  the  coming  of  Peirce,  really 
did  help  them  a  great  deal.  At  any  rate,  it  was  a 
curious  coincidence  that  no  sooner  did  the  Ameri- 
can invasion  occur  than  it  was  semi-officially  dis- 
covered that  no  application  of  which  her  Majesty's 
government  could  take  cognizance  had  been  made 
by  the  scientific  authorities  for  a  grant  of  money 
with  which  to  make  preparations  for  observing  the 
eclipse.  That  the  scientific  authorities  were  not 
long  in  catching  so  broad  a  hint  as  this  goes  with- 


SCIENTIFIC  ENGLAND  275 

out  saying.     A  little  more  of  the  story  came  out  a 
few  days  later  in  a  very  unexpected  way. 

In  scientific  England,  the  great  social  event  of 
the  year  is  the  annual  banquet  of  the  Eoyal  Society, 
held  on  St.  Andrew's  day,  the  date  of  the  annual 
meeting  of  the  society,  and  of  the  award  of  its 
medals  for  distinguished  work  in  science.  At  the 
banquet  the  scientific  outlook  is  discussed  not  only 
by  members  of  the  society,  but  by  men  high  in 
political  and  social  life.  The  medalists  are  toasted, 
if  they  are  present ;  and  their  praises  are  sung,  if, 
as  is  apt  to  be  the  case  with  foreigners,  they  are 
absent.  First  in  rank  is  the  Copley  medal,  founded 
by  Sir  Godfrey  Copley,  a  contemporary  of  Newton. 
This  medal  has  been  awarded  annually  since  1731, 
and  is  now  considered  the  highest  honor  that  sci- 
entific England  has  to  bestow.  The  recipient  is 
selected  with  entire  impartiality  as  to  country,  not 
for  any  special  work  published  during  the  year,  but 
in  view  of  the  general  merit  of  all  that  he  has 
done.  Five  times  in  its  history  the  medal  has 
crossed  the  Atlantic.  It  was  awarded  to  Franklin 
in  1753,  Agassiz  in  1861,  Dana  in  1877,  and  J. 
Willard  Gibbs  in  1902.  The  long  time  that  elapsed 
between  the  first  and  the  second  of  these  awards 
affords  an  illustration  of  the  backwardness  of  scien- 
tific research  in  America  during  the  greater  part 
of  the  first  century  of  our  independence.  The, 
year  of  my  visit  the  medal  was  awarded  to  Mr. 
Joule,  the  English  physicist,  for  his  work  on  the 
relation  of  heat  and  energy. 


276    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

I  was  a  guest  at  the  banquet,  which  was  the 
most  brilliant  function  I  had  witnessed  up  to  that 
time.  The  leaders  in  English  science  and  learning 
sat  around  the  table.  Her  Majesty's  government 
was  represented  by  Mr.  Gladstone,  the  Premier, 
and  Mr.  Lowe,  afterward  Viscount  Sherbrooke, 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  Both  replied  to 
toasts.  Mr.  Lowe  as  a  speaker  was  perhaps  a  little 
dull,  but  not  so  Mr.  Gladstone.  There  was  a  charm 
about  the  way  in  which  his  talk  seemed  to  display 
the  inner  man.  It  could  not  be  said  that  he  had 
either  the  dry  humor  of  Mr.  Evarts  or  the  wit  of 
Mr.  Depew  ;  but  these  qualities  were  well  replaced 
by  the  vivacity  of  his  manner  and  the  intellectu- 
ality of  his  face.  He  looked  as  if  he  had  some- 
thing interesting  he  wanted  to  tell  you;  and  he 
proceeded  to  tell  it  in  a  very  felicitous  way  as  re- 
garded both  manner  and  language,  but  without 
anything  that  savored  of  eloquence.  He  was  like 
Carl  Schurz  in  talking  as  if  he  wanted  to  inform 
you,  and  not  because  he  wanted  you  to  see  what  a 
fine  speaker  he  was.  With  this  he  impressed  one 
as  having  a  perfect  command  of  his  subject  in  all 
its  bearings. 

I  did  not  for  a  moment  suppose  that  the  Premier 
of  England  could  have  taken  any  personal  interest 
in  the  matter  of  the  eclipse.  Great,  therefore,  was 
my  surprise  when,  in  speaking  of  the  relations  of 
the  government  to  science,  he  began  to  talk  about 
the  coming  event.  I  quote  a  passage  from  memory, 
after  twenty-seven  years :  "  I  had  the  pleasure  of 


SCIENTIFIC  ENGLAND  277 

a  visit,  a  few  days  since,  from  a  very  distinguished 
American  professor,  Professor  Peirce  of  Harvard. 
In  the  course  of  the  interview,  the  learned  gentle- 
man expressed  his  regret  that  her  Majesty's  gov- 
ernment had  declined  to  take  any  measures  to 
promote  observations  of  the  coming  eclipse  of  the 
sun  hy  British  astronomers.  I  replied  that  I  was 
not  aware  that  the  government  had  declined  to 
take  such  measures.  Indeed,  I  went  further,  and 
assured  him  that  any  application  from  our  astron- 
omers for  aid  in  making  these  observations  would 
receive  respectful  consideration."  I  felt  that  there 
might  be  room  for  some  suspicion  that  this  visit  of 
Professor  Peirce  was  a  not  unimportant  factor  in 
the  changed  position  of  affairs  as  regarded  British 
observations  of  the  eclipse. 

Not  only  the  scene  I  have  described,  but  subse- 
quent experience,  has  impressed  me  with  the  high 
appreciation  in  which  the  best  scientific  work  is 
held  by  the  leading  countries  of  Europe,  especially 
England  and  France,  as  if  the  prosecution  were 
something  of  national  importance  which  men  of 
the  highest  rank  thought  it  an  honor  to  take  part 
in.  The  Marquis  of  Salisbury,  in  an  interval  be- 
tween two  terms  of  service  as  Premier  of  England, 
presided  over  the  British  Association  for  the  Ad- 
vancement of  Science,  and  delivered  an  address 
showing  a  wide  and  careful  study  of  the  general- 
izations of  modern  science. 

In  France,  also,  one  great  glory  of  the  nation  is 
felt  to  be  the  works  of  its  scientific  and  learned 


278    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

men  of  the  past  and  present.  Membership  of  one 
of  the  five  academies  of  the  Institute  of  France 
is  counted  among  the  highest  honors  to  which  a 
Frenchman  can  aspire.  Most  remarkable,  too,  is 
the  extent  to  which  other  considerations  than  that 
of  merit  are  set  aside  in  selecting  candidates  for 
this  honor.  Quite  recently  a  man  was  elected  a 
member  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences  who  was 
without  either  university  or  official  position,  and 
earned  a  modest  subsistence  as  a  collaborator  of 
the  "  Kevue  des  Deux  Mondes."  But  he  had 
found  time  to  make  investigations  in  mathemati- 
cal astronomy  of  such  merit  that  he  was  con- 
sidered to  have  fairly  earned  this  distinction,  and 
the  modesty  of  his  social  position  did  not  lie  in 
his  way. 

At  the  time  of  this  visit  Lister  was  an  eminent 
member  of  the  medical  profession,  but  had  not,  so 
far  as  I  am  aware,  been  recognized  as  one  who  was 
to  render  incalculable  service  to  suffering  humanity. 
From  a  professional  point  of  view  there  are  no  two 
walks  in  life  having  fewer  points  of  contact  than 
those  of  the  surgeon  and  the  astronomer.  It  is 
therefore  a  remarkable  example  of  the  closeness  of 
touch  among  eminent  Englishmen  in  every  walk 
of  life,  that,  in  subsequent  visits,  I  was  repeatedly 
thrown  into  contact  with  one  who  may  fairly  be 
recommended  as  among  the  greatest  benefactors  of 
the  human  race  that  the  nineteenth  century  has 
given  us.  This  was  partly,  but  not  wholly,  due  to 


SCIENTIFIC   ENGLAND  279 

his  being,  for  several  years,  the  president  of  the 
Koyal  Society.  I  would  willingly  say  much  more, 
but  I  am  unable  to  write  authoritatively  upon  the 
life  and  work  of  such  a  man,  and  must  leave  gossip 
to  the  daily  press. 

For  the  visiting  astronomer  at  London  scarcely 
a  place  in  London  has  more  attractions  than  the 
modest  little  observatory  and  dwelling  house  on 
Upper  Tulse  Hill,  in  which  Sir  William  Huggins 
has  done  so  much  to  develop  the  spectroscopy  of 
the  fixed  stars.  The  owner  of  this  charming  place 
was  a  pioneer  in  the  application  of  the  spectroscope 
to  the  analysis  of  the  light  of  the  heavenly  bodies, 
and  after  nearly  forty  years  of  work  in  this  field, 
is  still  pursuing  his  researches.  The  charm  of  sen- 
timent is  added  to  the  cold  atmosphere  of  science 
by  the  collaboration  of  Lady  Huggins.  Almost 
at  the  beginning  of  his  work  Mr.  Huggins,  analyz- 
ing the  light  of  the  great  nebula  of  Orion,  showed 
that  it  must  proceed  from  a  mass  of  gas,  and  not 
from  solid  matter,  thus  making  the  greatest  step 
possible  in  our  knowledge  of  these  objects.  He 
was  also  the  first  to  make  actual  measures  of  the 
motions  of  bright  stars  to  or  from  our  system  by 
observing  the  wave  length  of  the  rays  of  light 
which  they  absorbed.  Quite  recently  an  illustrated 
account  of  his  observatory  and  its  work  has  ap- 
peared in  a  splendid  folio  volume,  in  which  the 
rigor  of  science  is  tempered  with  a  gentle  infusion 
of  art  which  tempts  even  the  non-scientific  reader 
to  linger  over  its  pages. 


280    THE  REMINISCENCES   OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

In  England,  the  career  of  Professor  Cayley  af- 
fords an  example  of  the  spirit  that  impels  a  scien- 
tific worker  of  the  highest  class,  and  of  the  extent 
to  which  an  enlightened  community  may  honor 
him  for  what  he  is  doing.  One  of  the  creators  of 
modern  mathematics,  he  never  had  any  ambition 
beyond  the  prosecution  of  his  favorite  science.  I 
first  met  him  at  a  dinner  of  the  Astronomical 
Society  Club.  As  the  guests  were  taking  off  their 
wraps  and  assembling  in  the  anteroom,  I  noticed, 
with  some  surprise,  that  one  whom  I  supposed  to 
be  an  attendant  was  talking  with  them  on  easy 
terms.  A  moment  later  the  supposed  attendant 
was  introduced  as  Professor  Cayley.  His  garb  set 
off  the  seeming  haggardness  of  his  keen  features 
so  effectively  that  I  thought  him  either  broken 
down  in  health  or  just  recovering  from  some  pro- 
tracted illness.  The  unspoken  words  on  my  lips 
were,  "  Why,  Professor  Cayley,  what  has  happened 
to  you  ?  "  Being  now  in  the  confessional,  I  must 
own  that  I  did  not,  at  the  moment,  recognize  the 
marked  intellectuality  of  a  very  striking  face.  As 
a  representation  of  a  mathematician  in  the  throes 
of  thought,  I  know  nothing  to  equal  his  portrait 
by  Dickenson,  which  now  hangs  in  the  hall  of 
Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  and  is  reproduced  in 
the  sixth  volume  of  Cayley 's  collected  works.  His 
life  was  that  of  a  man  moved  to  investigation  by 
an  uncontrollable  impulse ;  the  only  sort  of  man 
whose  work  is  destined  to  be  imperishable.  Until 
forty  years  of  age  he  was  by  profession  a  convey- 


SCIENTIFIC   ENGLAND  281 

ancer.  His  ability  was  such  that  he  might  have 
gained  a  fortune  by  practicing  the  highest  branch 
of  English  law,  if  his  energies  had  not  been  di- 
verted in  another  direction.  The  spirit  in  which 
he  pursued  his  work  may  be  judged  from  an  anec- 
dote related  by  his  friend  and  co-worker,  Sylves- 
ter, who,  in  speaking  of  Cayley's  even  and  placid 
temper,  told  me  that  he  had  never  seen  him  ruffled 
but  once.  Entering  his  office  one  morning,  intent 
on  some  new  mathematical  thought  which  he  was 
discussing  with  Sylvester,  he  opened  the  letter-box 
in  his  door  and  found  a  bundle  of  papers  relating 
to  a  law  case  which  he  was  asked  to  take  up. 
The  interruption  was  too  much.  He  flung  the  pa- 
pers on  the  table  with  remarks  more  forcible  than 
complimentary  concerning  the  person  who  had 
distracted  his  attention  at  such  an  inopportune 
moment.  In  1863  he  was  made  a  professor  at 
Cambridge,  where,  no  longer  troubled  with  the 
intricacies  of  land  tenure,  he  published  one  inves- 
tigation after  another  with  ceaseless  activity,  to  the 
end  of  his  life. 

Among  my  most  interesting  callers  was  Professor 
John  C.  Adams,  of  whom  I  have  spoken  as  sharing 
with  Leverrier  the  honor  of  having  computed  the 
position  of  the  planet  Neptune  before  its  existence 
was  otherwise  known.  The  work  of  the  two  men 
was  prosecuted  at  almost  the  same  time,  but  adopt- 
ing the  principle  that  priority  of  publication  should 
be  the  sole  basis  of  credit,  Arago  had  declared  that 
no  other  name  than  that  of  Leverrier  should  even 


282    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

be  mentioned  in  connection  with  the  work.  If  re- 
pute was  correct,  Leverrier  was  not  distinguished 
for  those  amiable  qualities  that  commonly  mark 
the  man  of  science  and  learning.  His  attitude 
toward  Adams  had  always  been  hostile.  Under 
these  conditions  chance  afforded  the  latter  a  splen- 
did opportunity  of  showing  his  superiority  to  all 
personal  feeling.  He  was  president  of  the  Royal 
Astronomical  Society  when  its  annual  medal  was 
awarded  to  his  French  rival  for  his  work  in  con- 
structing new  tables  of  the  sun  and  planets.  It 
thus  became  his  duty  to  deliver  the  address  setting 
forth  the  reasons  for  the  award.  He  did  this  with 
a  warmth  of  praise  for  Leverrier 's  works  which 
could  not  have  been  exceeded  had  the  two  men 
been  bosom  friends. 

Adams's  intellect  was  one  of  the  keenest  I  ever 
knew.  The  most  difficult  problems  of  mathemati- 
cal astronomy  and  the  most  recondite  principles 
that  underlie  the  theory  of  the  celestial  motions 
were  to  him  but  child's  play.  His  works  place  him 
among  the  first  mathematical  astronomers  of  the 
age,  and  yet  they  do  not  seem  to  do  his  ability 
entire  justice.  Indeed,  for  fifteen  years  previous 
to  the  time  of  my  visit  his  published  writings  had 
been  rather  meagre.  But  I  believe  he  was  justly 
credited  with  an  elaborate  witticism  to  the  follow- 
ing effect :  "  In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  only 
human  being  ever  known  to  have  been  killed  by  a 
meteorite  was  a  monk,  we  may  concede  that  after 
four  hundred  years  the  Pope's  bull  against  the 


SCIENTIFIC  ENGLAND  283 

comet  has  been  justified  by  the  discovery  that 
comets  are  made  up  of  meteorites." 

Those  readers  who  know  on  what  imperfect  data 
men's  impressions  are  sometimes  founded  will  not 
be  surprised  to  learn  of  my  impression  that  an 
Englishman's  politics  could  be  inferred  from  his 
mental  and  social  make-up.  If  all  men  are  born 
either  Aristotelians  or  Platonists,  then  it  may  be 
supposed  that  all  Englishmen  are  born  Conserva- 
tives or  Liberals. 

The  utterances  of  English  journalists  of  the  Con- 
servative party  about  American  affairs  during  and 
after  our  civil  war  had  not  impressed  me  with  the 
idea  that  one  so  unfortunate  as  to  be  born  in  that 
party  would  either  take  much  interest  in  meeting 
an  American  or  be  capable  of  taking  an  apprecia- 
tive view  of  scientific  progress.  So  confident  was 
I  of  my  theory  that  I  remarked  to  a  friend  with 
whom  I  had  become  somewhat  intimate,  that  no 
one  who  knew  Mr.  Adams  could  have  much  doubt 
that  he  was  a  Liberal  in  politics. 

An  embarrassed  smile  spread  over  the  friend's 
features.  "  You  would  not  make  that  conclusion 
known  to  Mr.  Adams,  I  hope/'  said  he. 

"  But  is  he  not  a  Liberal  ?  " 

"  He  is  not  only  a  Conservative,  but  declares 
himself  <  a  Tory  of  the  Tories.'  " 

I  afterward  found  that  he  fully  justified  his  own 
description.  At  the  university,  he  was  one  of  the 
leading  opponents  of  those  measures  which  freed 
the  academic  degrees  from  religious  tests.  He  was 


284    THE  REMINISCENCES   OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

said  to  have  been  among  those  who  objected  to 
Sylvester,  a  Jew,  receiving  a  degree. 

I  had  decided  to  observe  the  eclipse  at  Gibraltar. 
In  order  that  my  results,  if  I  obtained  any,  might 
be  utilized  in  the  best  way,  it  was  necessary  that 
the  longitude  of  the  station  should  be  determined 
by  telegraph.  This  had  never  been  done  for  Gib- 
raltar. How  great  the  error  of  the  supposed  lon- 
gitude might  have  been  may  be  inferred  from  the 
fact  that  a  few  years  later,  Captain  F.  Green  of 
the  United  States  Navy  found  the  longitude  of 
Lisbon  on  the  Admiralty  charts  to  be  two  miles  in 
error.  The  first  arrangements  I  had  to  make  in 
England  were  directed  to  this  end.  Considering 
the  relation  of  the  world's  great  fortress  to  British 
maritime  supremacy,  it  does  seem  as  if  there  were 
something  presumptuous  in  the  coolness  with  which 
I  went  among  the  authorities  to  make  arrangements 
for  the  enterprise.  Nevertheless,  the  authorities 
permitted  the  work,  with  a  cordiality  which  was  of 
itself  quite  sufficient  to  remove  any  such  impression, 
had  it  been  entertained.  The  astronomers  did,  in- 
deed, profess  to  feel  it  humiliating  that  the  longi- 
tude of  such  a  place  as  Gibraltar  should  have  to  be 
determined  from  Greenwich  by  an  American.  They 
did  not  say  "  by  a  foreigner,"  because  they  always 
protested  against  Americans  looking  upon  them- 
selves as  such.  Still,  it  would  not  be  an  English 
enterprise  if  an  American  carried  it  out.  I  suspect, 
however,  that  my  proceedings  were  not  looked  upon 


SCIENTIFIC   ENGLAND  285 

with  entire  dissatisfaction  even  by  the  astronomers. 
They  might  prove  as  good  a  stimulant  to  their  gov- 
ernment in  showing  a  little  more  enterprise  in  that 
direction  as  the  arrival  of  our  eclipse  party  did. 

The  longitude  work  naturally  took  me  to  the 
Koyal  Observatory  which  has  made  the  little  town 
of  Greenwich  so  famous.  It  is  situated  some  eight 
miles  east  from  Charing  Cross,  on  a  hill  in  Green- 
wich Park,  with  a  pleasant  outlook  toward  the 
Thames.  From  my  youth  up  I  had  been  working 
with  its  observations,  and  there  was  no  institution 
in  the  world  which  I  had  approached,  or  could  ap- 
proach, with  the  interest  I  felt  in  ascending  the 
little  hill  on  which  it  is  situated.  When  the  Calabria 
was  once  free  from  her  wharf  in  New  York  harbor, 
and  on  her  way  down  the  Narrows,  the  foremost 
thought  was,  "  Off  for  Europe ;  we  shall  see  Green- 
wich !  "  The  day  of  my  arrival  in  London  I  had 
written  to  Professor  Airy,  and  received  an  answer 
the  same  evening,  inviting  us  to  visit  the  observa- 
tory and  spend  an  afternoon  with  him  a  day  or 
two  later. 

I  was  shown  around  the  observatory  by  an  assist- 
ant, while  my  wife  was  entertained  by  Mrs.  Airy 
and  the  daughters  inside  the  dwelling.  The  fam- 
ily dined  as  soon  as  the  day's  work  was  over,  about 
the  middle  of  the  afternoon.  After  the  meal,  we 
sat  over  a  blazing  fire  and  discussed  our  impres- 
sions of  London. 

"  What  place  in  London  interested  you  most  ?  " 
said  Airy  to  my  wife. 


286    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

"  The  first  place  I  went  to  see  was  Cavendish 
Square." 

"  What  was  there  in  Cavendish  Square  to  inter- 
est you  ?  " 

"  When  I  was  a  little  girl,  my  mother  once 
gave  me,  as  a  birthday  present,  a  small  volume  of 
poems.  The  first  verse  in  the  book  was :  — 

"  '  Little  Ann  and  her  mother  were  walking  one  day 

Through  London's  wide  city  so  fair  ; 
And  business  obliged  them  to  go  by  the  way 
That  led  them  through  Cavendish  Square.'  " 

To  our  astonishment  the  Astronomer  Royal  at 
once  took  up  the  thread  :  — 

"  '  And  as  they  passed  by  the  great  house  of  a  lord, 

A  beautiful  chariot  there  came, 
To  take  some  most  elegant  ladies  abroad, 
Who  straightway  got  into  the  same,'  " 

and  went  on  to  the  end.  I  do  not  know  which 
of  the  two  was  more  surprised :  Airy,  to  find  an 
American  woman  who  was  interested  in  his  favor- 
ite ballad,  or  she  to  find  that  he  could  repeat  it 
by  heart.  The  incident  was  the  commencement  of 
a  family  friendship  which  has  outlived  both  the 
heads  of  the  Airy  family. 

We  may  look  back  on  Airy  as  the  most  com- 
manding figure  in  the  astronomy  of  our  time.  He 
owes  this  position  not  only  to  his  early  works  in 
mathematical  astronomy,  but  also  to  his  ability  as 
an  organizer.  Before  his  time  the  working  force 
of  an  observatory  generally  consisted  of  individual 
observers,  each  of  whom  worked  to  a  greater  or 


SCIENTIFIC  ENGLAND  287 

less  extent  in  his  own  way.  It  is  true  that  or- 
ganization was  not  unknown  in  such  institutions. 
Nominally,  at  least,  the  assistants  in  a  national  ob- 
servatory were  supposed  to  follow  the  instructions 
of  a  directing  head.  This  was  especially  the  case 
at  Greenwich.  Still,  great  dependence  was  placed 
upon  the  judgment  and  ability  of  the  observer 
himself,  who  was  generally  expected  to  be  a  man 
well  trained  in  his  specialty,  and  able  to  carry  on 
good  work  without  much  help.  From  Airy's  point 
of  view,  it  was  seen  that  a  large  part  of  the  work 
necessary  to  the  attainment  of  the  traditional  end 
of  the  Royal  Observatory  was  of  a  kind  that  al- 
most any  bright  schoolboy  could  learn  to  do  in  a 
few  weeks,  and  that  in  most  of  the  remaining  part 
plodding  industry,  properly  directed,  was  more  im- 
portant than  scientific  training.  He  could  himself 
work  out  all  the  mathematical  formula  and  write 
all  the  instructions  required  to  keep  a  small  army 
of  observers  and  computers  employed,  and  could 
then  train  in  his  methods  a  few  able  lieutenants, 
who  would  see  that  all  the  details  were  properly 
executed.  Under  these  lieutenants  was  a  grade 
comprising  men  of  sufficient  technical  education  to 
enable  them  to  learn  how  to  point  the  telescope, 
record  a  transit,  and  perform  the  other  technical 
operations  necessary  in  an  astronomical  observa- 
tion. A  third  grade  was  that  of  computers :  in- 
genious youth,  quick  at  figures,  ready  to  work  for 
a  compensation  which  an  American  laborer  would 
despise,  yet  well  enough  schooled  to  make  simple 


288    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

calculations.  Under  the  new  system  they  needed 
to  understand  only  the  four  rules  of  arithmetic ; 
indeed,  so  far  as  possible  Airy  arranged  his  calcu- 
lations in  such  a  way  that  subtraction  and  division 
were  rarely  required.  His  boys  had  little  more  to 
do  than  add  and  multiply.  Thus,  so  far  as  the 
doing  of  work  was  concerned,  he  introduced  the 
same  sort  of  improvement  that  our  times  have 
witnessed  in  great  manufacturing  establishments, 
where  labor  is  so  organized  that  unskilled  men 
bring  about  results  that  formerly  demanded  a  high 
grade  of  technical  ability.  He  introduced  produc- 
tion on  a  large  scale  into  astronomy. 

At  the  time  of  my  visit,  it  was  much  the  fashion 
among  astronomers  elsewhere  to  speak  slightingly 
of  the  Greenwich  system.  The  objections  to  it 
were,  in  substance,  the  same  that  have  been  made 
to  the  minute  subdivision  of  labor.  The  intellect 
of  the  individual  was  stunted  for  the  benefit  of  the 
work.  The  astronomer  became  a  mere  operative. 
Yet  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  astronomical  work 
done  at  Greenwich  during  the  sixty  years  since 
Airy  introduced  his  system  has  a  value  and  an  im- 
portance in  its  specialty  that  none  done  elsewhere 
can  exceed.  All  future  conclusions  as  to  the  laws 
of  motion  of  the  heavenly  bodies  must  depend 
largely  upon  it. 

The  organization  of  his  little  army  necessarily 
involved  a  corresponding  change  in  the  instruments 
they  were  to  use.  Before  his  time  the  trained  as- 
tronomer worked  with  instruments  of  very  delicate 


SCIENTIFIC  ENGLAND  289 

construction,  so  that  skill  in  handling  them  was 
one  of  the  requisites  of  an  observer.  Airy  made 
them  in  the  likeness  of  heavy  machinery,  which 
could  suffer  no  injury  from  a  blow  of  the  head  of 
a  careless  observer.  Strong  and  simple,  they  rarely 
got  out  of  order.  It  is  said  that  an  assistant  who 
showed  a  visiting  astronomer  the  transit  circle  some- 
times hit  it  a  good  slap  to  show  how  solid  it  was ; 
but  this  was  not  done  on  the  present  occasion. 
The  little  army  had  its  weekly  marching  orders  and 
made  daily  reports  of  progress  to  its  commander, 
who  was  thus  enabled  to  control  the  minutest  de- 
tail of  every  movement. 

In  the  course  of  the  evening  Airy  gave  me  a 
lesson  in  method,  which  was  equally  instructive  and 
entertaining.  In  order  to  determine  the  longitude 
of  Gibraltar,  it  was  necessary  that  time  signals 
should  be  sent  by  telegraph  from  the  Royal  Obser- 
vatory. Our  conversation  naturally  led  us  into  a 
discussion  of  the  general  subject  of  such  operations. 
I  told  him  of  the  difficulties  we  had  experienced 
in  determining  a  telegraphic  longitude,  —  that  of 
the  Harvard  Observatory  from  Washington,  for 
example,  —  because  it  was  only  after  a  great  deal 
of  talking  and  arranging  on  the  evening  of  the 
observation  that  the  various  telegraph  stations  be- 
tween the  two  points  could  have  their  connections 
successfully  made  at  the  same  moment.  At  the 
appointed  hour  the  Washington  operator  would  be 
talking  with  the  others,  to  know  if  they  were  ready, 
and  so  a  general  discussion  about  the  arrangements 


290    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

might  go  on  for  half  an  hour  before  the  connec- 
tions were  all  reported  good.  If  we  had  such 
trouble  in  a  land  line,  how  should  we  get  a  con- 
nection from  London  to  the  Gibraltar  cable  through 
lines  in  constant  use  ? 

"  But/'  said  Airy,  "  I  never  allow  an  operator 
who  can  speak  with  the  instruments  to  take  part 
in  determining  a  telegraphic  longitude." 

"  Then  how  can  you  get  the  connections  all 
made  from  one  end  of  the  line  to  the  other,  at  the 
same  moment,  if  your  operators  cannot  talk  to  one 
another  ?  " 

"Nothing  is  simpler.  I  fix  in  advance  a  mo- 
ment, say  eight  o'clock  Greenwich  mean  time,  at 
which  signals  are  to  commence.  Every  intermedi- 
ate office  through  which  the  signals  are  to  pass  is 
instructed  to  have  its  wires  connected  in  both  di- 
rections exactly  at  the  given  hour,  and  to  leave 
them  so  connected  for  ten  minutes,  without  asking 
any  further  instructions.  At  the  end  of  the  line 
the  instruments  must  be  prepared  at  the  appointed 
hour  to  receive  the  signals.  All  I  have  to  do  here 
is  to  place  my  clock  in  the  circuit  and  send  on 
the  signals  for  ten  minutes,  commencing  at  eight 
o'clock.  They  are  recorded  at  the  other  end  of 
the  line  without  further  trouble." 

"  But  have  you  never  met  with  a  failure  to  un- 
derstand the  instructions  ?  " 

"  No  ;  they  are  too  simple  to  be  mistaken,  once 
it  is  understood  that  no  one  has  anything  to  do 
but  make  his  connections  at  the  designated  mo- 


SCIENTIFIC  ENGLAND  291 

ment,  without  asking  whether  any  one  else  is 
ready." 

Airy  was  noted  not  less  for  his  ability  as  an 
organizer  than  for  his  methodical  habits.  The 
care  with  which  he  preserved  every  record  led  Sir 
William  Kowan  Hamilton  to  say  that  when  Airy 
wiped  his  pen  on  a  blotter,  he  fancied  him  as  al- 
ways taking  a  press  copy  of  the  mark.  His  ma- 
chinery seemed  to  work  perfectly,  whether  it  was 
constructed  of  flesh  or  of  brass.  He  could  pre- 
pare instructions  for  the  most  complicated  piece  of 
work  with  such  effective  provision  against  every 
accident  and  such  completeness  in  every  detail  that 
the  work  would  go  on  for  years  without  further 
serious  attention  from  him.  The  instruments 
which  he  designed  half  a  century  ago  are  mostly 
in  use  to  this  day,  with  scarcely  an  alteration. 

Yet  there  is  some  reason  to  fear  that  Airy  car- 
ried method  a  little  too  far  to  get  the  best  results. 
Of  late  years  his  system  has  been  greatly  changed, 
even  at  Greenwich.  It  was  always  questionable 
whether  so  rigid  a  military  routine  could  accom- 
plish the  best  that  was  possible  in  astronomy  ;  and 
Airy  himself,  during  his  later  years,  modified  his 
plan  by  trying  to  secure  trained  scientific  men  as 
his  assistants,  giving  them  liberty  to  combine  in- 
dependent research,  on  their  own  account,  with 
the  work  of  the  establishment.  His  successor  has 
gone  farther  in  the  same  direction,  and  is  now 
gathering  around  him  a  corps  of  young  university 
men,  from  whose  ability  much  may  be  expected. 


292    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

Observations  with  the  spectroscope  have  been  pur- 
sued, and  the  observatory  has  taken  a  prominent 
part  in  the  international  work  of  making  a  photo- 
graphic map  of  the  heavens.  Of  special  impor- 
tance are  the  regular  discussions  of  photographs  of 
the  sun,  taken  in  order  to  determine  the  law  of 
the  variation  of  the  spots.  The  advantage  of  the 
regular  system  which  has  been  followed  for  more 
than  fifty  years  is  seen  in  the  meteorological  obser- 
vations ;  these  disprove  some  theories  of  the  rela- 
tion between  the  sun  and  the  weather,  in  a  way 
that  no  other  set  of  meteorological  records  has 
done.  While  delicate  determinations  of  the  high- 
est precision,  such  as  those  made  at  Pulkova,  are 
not  yet  undertaken  to  any  great  extent,  a  regular 
even  if  slow  improvement  is  going  on  in  the  gen- 
eral character  of  the  observations  and  researches, 
which  must  bear  fruit  in  due  time. 

One  of  the  curious  facts  we  learned  at  Green- 
wich was  that  astronomy  was  still  supposed  to  be 
astrology  by  many  in  England.  That  a  belief  in 
astrology  should  survive  was  perhaps  not  remark- 
able, though  I  do  not  remember  to  have  seen  any 
evidence  of  it  in  this  country.  But  applications 
received  at  the  Eoyal  Observatory,  from  time  to 
time,  showed  a  widespread  belief  among  the  masses 
that  one  of  the  functions  of  the  astronomer  royal 
was  the  casting  of  horoscopes. 

We  went  to  Edinburgh.  Our  first  visit  was  to 
the  observatory,  then  under  the  direction  of  Pro- 


SCIENTIFIC   ENGLAND  293 

fessor  C.  Piazzi  Smyth,  who  was  also  an  Egyptolo- 
gist of  repute,  having  made  careful  measurements 
of  the  Pyramids,  and  brought  out  some  new  facts 
regarding  their  construction.  He  was  thus  led  to 
the  conclusion  that  they  bore  marks  of  having  been 
built  by  a  people  of  more  advanced  civilization 
than  was  generally  supposed,  —  so  advanced,  in- 
deed, that  we  had  not  yet  caught  up  to  them  in 
scientific  investigation.  These  views  were  set  forth 
with  great  fullness  in  his  work  on  "  The  Antiquity 
of  Intellectual  Man,"  as  well  as  in  other  volumes 
describing  his  researches.  He  maintained  that  the 
builders  of  the  Pyramids  knew  the  distance  of  the 
sun  rather  better  than  we  did,  and  that  the  height 
of  the  Great  Pyramid  had  been  so  arranged  that  if 
it  was  multiplied  by  a  thousand  millions  we  should 
get  this  distance  more  exactly  than  we  could  mea- 
sure it  in  these  degenerate  days.  With  him,  to  be- 
lieve in  the  Pyramid  was  to  believe  this,  and  a  great 
deal  more  about  the  civilization  which  it  proved. 
So,  when  he  asked  me  whether  I  believed  in  the 
Pyramid,  I  told  him  that  I  did  not  think  I  would 
depend  wholly  upon  the  Pyramid  for  the  distance 
of  the  sun  to  be  used  in  astronomy,  but  should 
want  its  indications  at  least  confirmed  by  modern 
researches.  The  hint  was  sufficient,  and  I  was  not 
further  pressed  for  views  on  this  subject. 

He  introduced  us  to  Lady  Hamilton,  widow  of 
the  celebrated  philosopher,  who  still  held  court  at 
Edinburgh.  The  daughter  of  the  family  was  in 
repute  as  a  metaphysician.  This  was  interesting, 


294    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

because  I  had  never  before  heard  of  a  female 
metaphysician,  although  there  were  several  cases  of 
female  mathematicians  recorded  in  history.  First 
among  them  was  Donna  Maria  Agnesi,  who  wrote 
one  of  the  best  eighteenth-century  books  on  the 
calculus,  and  had  a  special  dispensation  from  the 
Pope  to  teach  mathematics  at  Bologna.  We  were 
therefore  very  glad  to  accept  an  invitation  from 
Lady  Hamilton  to  spend  an  evening  with  a  few 
of  her  friends.  Her  rooms  were  fairly  filled  with 
books,  the  legacy  of  one  of  whom  it  was  said  that 
"  scarcely  a  thought  has  come  down  to  us  through 
the  ages  which  he  has  not  mastered  and  made  his 


own." 


The  few  guests  were  mostly  university  people 
and  philosophers.  The  most  interesting  of  them 
was  Professor  Blackie,  the  Grecian  scholar,  who 
was  the  liveliest  little  man  of  sixty  I  ever  saw; 
amusing  us  by  singing  German  songs,  and  dancing 
about  the  room  like  a  sprightly  child  among  its 
playmates.  I  talked  with  Miss  Hamilton  about 
Mill, whose  "Examination  of  Sir  William  Hamilton's 
Philosophy  "  was  still  fresh  in  men's  minds.  Of 
course  she  did  not  believe  in  this  book,  and  said 
that  Mill  could  not  understand  her  father's  philoso- 
phy. With  all  her  intellect,  she  was  a  fine  healthy- 
looking  young  lady,  and  it  was  a  sad  surprise,  a 
few  years  later,  to  hear  of  her  death.  Madame 
Sophie  Kovalevsky  afterward  appeared  on  the  stage 
as  the  first  female  mathematician  of  our  time,  but 
it  may  be  feared  that  the  woman  philosopher  died 
with  Miss  Hamilton. 


SCIENTIFIC   ENGLAND  295 

A  large  party  of  English  astronomers  were  go- 
ing to  Algeria  to  observe  the  eclipse.  The  govern- 
ment had  fitted  up  a  naval  transport  for  their  use, 
and  as  I  was  arranging  for  a  passage  on  a  ship  of 
the  Peninsular  and  Oriental  Line  we  received  an  in- 
vitation to  become  the  guests  of  the  English  party. 
Among  those  on  board  were  Professor  Tyndall ;  Mr. 
Huggins,  the  spectroscopist ;  Sir  Erastus  Ommaney, 
a  retired  English  admiral,  and  a  fellow  of  the  E-oyal 
Society ;  Father  Perry,  S.  J.,  a  well-known  astron- 
omer ;  and  Lieutenant  W  hart  on,  who  afterward  be- 
came hydrographer  to  the  Admiralty. 

The  sprightliest  man  on  board  was  Professor 
Tyndall.  He  made  up  for  the  absence  of  moun- 
tains by  climbing  to  every  part  of  the  ship  he  could 
reach.  One  day  he  climbed  the  shrouds  to  the 
maintop,  and  stood  surveying  the  scene  as  if  look- 
ing out  from  the  top  of  the  Matterhorn.  A  sailor 
followed  him,  and  drew  a  chalk-line  around  his 
feet.  I  assume  the  reader  knows  what  this  means ; 
if  he  does  not,  he  can  learn  by  straying  into  the 
sailors'  quarters  the  first  time  he  is  on  board  an 
ocean  steamer.  But  the  professor  absolutely  re- 
fused to  take  the  hint. 

We  had  a  rather  rough  passage,  from  which 
Father  Perry  was  the  greatest  sufferer.  One  day 
he  heard  a  laugh  from  the  only  lady  on  board,  who 
was  in  the  adjoining  stateroom.  "  Who  can  laugh 
at  such  a  time  as  this !  "  he  exclaimed.  He  made 
a  vow  that  he  would  never  go  on  the  ocean  again, 
even  if  the  sun  and  moon  fought  for  a  month.  But 


296    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

the  vows  of  a  seasick  passenger  are  forgotten  sooner 
than  any  others  I  know  of  ;  and  it  was  only  four 
years  later  that  Father  Perry  made  a  voyage  to 
Kerguelen  Island,  in  the  stormiest  ocean  on  the 
globe,  to  observe  a  transit  of  Venus. 

Off  the  coast  of  Spain,  the  leading  chains  of  the 
rudder  got  loose,  during  a  gale  in  the  middle  of 
the  night,  and  the  steering  apparatus  had  to  be 
disconnected  in  order  to  tighten  them.  The  ship 
veered  round  into  the  trough  of  the  sea,  and  rolled 
so  heavily  that  a  table,  twenty  or  thirty  feet  long, 
in  the  saloon,  broke  from  its  fastenings,  and  began 
to  dance  around  the  cabin  with  such  a  racket  that 
some  of  the  passengers  feared  for  the  safety  of  the 
ship. 

Just  how  much  of  a  storm  there  was  I  cannot 
say,  believing  that  it  is  never  worth  while  for  a 
passenger  to  leave  his  berth,  if  there  is  any  danger 
of  a  ship  foundering  in  a  gale.  But  in  Professor 
Tyndall's  opinion  we  had  a  narrow  escape.  On  ar- 
riving at  Gibraltar,  he  wrote  a  glowing  account  of 
the  storm  to  the  London  Times,  in  which  he  de- 
scribed the  feelings  of  a  philosopher  while  standing 
on  the  stern  of  a  rolling  ship  in  an  ocean  storm, 
without  quite  knowing  whether  she  was  going  to 
sink  or  swim.  The  letter  was  anonymous,  which 
gave  Admiral  Ommaney  an  excellent  opportunity 
to  write  as  caustic  a  reply  as  he  chose,  under  the 
signature  of  "  A  Naval  Officer."  He  said  that 
sailor  was  fortunate  who  could  arrange  with  the 
clerk  of  the  weather  never  to  have  a  worse  storm 


SCIENTIFIC  ENGLAND  297 

in  crossing  the  Bay  of  Biscay  than  the  one  we  had 
experienced. 

We  touched  at  Cadiz,  and  anchored  for  a  few 
hours,  but  did  not  go  ashore.  The  Brooklyn,  an 
American  man-of-war,  was  in  the  harbor,  but  there 
was  no  opportunity  to  communicate  with  her,  though 
I  knew  a  friend  of  mine  was  on  board. 

Gibraltar  is  the  greatest  babel  in  the  world,  or, 
at  least,  the  greatest  I  know.  I  wrote  home  :  "  The 
principal  languages  spoken  at  this  hotel  are  Eng- 
lish, Spanish,  Moorish,  French,  Italian,  German, 
and  Danish.  I  do  not  know  what  languages  they 
speak  at  the  other  hotels."  Moorish  and  Spanish 
are  the  local  tongues,  and  of  course  English  is  the 
official  one  ;  but  the  traders  and  commercial  travel- 
ers speak  nearly  every  language  one  ever  heard. 

I  hired  a  Moor  —  who  bore  some  title  which  in- 
dicated that  he  was  a  descendant  of  the  Caliphs, 
and  by  which  he  had  to  be  addressed  —  to  do 
chores  and  act  as  general  assistant.  One  of  the 
first  things  I  did,  the  morning  after  my  arrival,  was 
to  choose  a  convenient  point  on  one  of  the  stone 
parapets  for  "taking  the  sun,"  in  order  to  test  the 
running  of  my  chronometer.  I  had  some  suspicion 
as  to  the  result,  but  was  willing  to  be  amused.  A 
sentinel  speedily  informed  me  that  no  sights  were 
allowed  to  be  taken  on  the  fortification.  I  told 
him  I  was  taking  sights  on  the  sun,  not  on  the 
fortification.  But  he  was  inexorable  5  the  rule  was 
that  no  sights  of  any  sort  could  be  taken  without 
a  permit.  I  soon  learned  from  Mr.  Sprague,  the 


298    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

American  consul,  who  the  proper  officer  was  to 
issue  the  permit,  which  I  was  assured  would  be 
granted  without  the  slightest  difficulty. 

The  consul  presented  me  to  the  military  gov- 
ernor of  the  place,  General  Sir  Fen  wick  Williams 
of  Kars.  I  did  not  know  till  long  afterward  that 
he  was  born  very  near  where  I  was.  He  was  a 
man  whom  it  was  very  interesting  to  meet.  His 
heroic  defense  of  the  town  whose  name  was  added 
to  his  own  as  a  part  of  his  title  was  still  fresh  in 
men's  minds.  It  had  won  him  the  order  of  the 
Bath  in  England,  the  Grand  Cross  of  the  Legion 
of  Honor  and  a  sword  from  Napoleon  III.,  and  the 
usual  number  of  lesser  distinctions.  The  military 
governor,  the  sole  authority  and  viceroy  of  the 
Queen  in  the  fortress,  is  treated  with  the  deference 
due  to  an  exalted  personage ;  but  this  deference  so 
strengthens  the  dignity  of  the  position  that  the 
holder  may  be  frank  and  hearty  at  his  own  plea- 
sure, without  danger  of  impairing  it.  Certainly, 
we  found  Sir  Fenwick  a  most  genial  and  charm- 
ing gentleman.  The  Alabama  claims  were  then 
in  their  acute  stage,  and  he  expressed  the  earnest 
hope  that  the  two  nations  would  not  proceed  to 
cutting  each  other's  throats  over  theni. 

There  was  no  need  of  troubling  the  governor  with 
such  a  detail  as  that  of  a  permit  to  take  sights  ;  but 
the  consul  ventured  to  relate  my  experience  of  the 
morning.  He  took  the  information  in  a  way  which 
showed  that  England,  in  making  him  a  general, 
had  lost  a  good  diplomatist.  Instead  of  treating 


SCIENTIFIC  ENGLAND  299 

the  matter  seriously,  which  would  have  implied 
that  we  did  not  fully  understand  the  situation,  he 
professed  to  be  greatly  amused,  and  said  it  reminded 
him  of  the  case  of  an  old  lady  in  "  Punch"  who 
had  to  pass  a  surveyor  in  the  street,  behind  a  theo- 
dolite. "  Please,  sir,  don't  shoot  till  I  get  past/' 
she  begged. 

Before  leaving  England,  I  had  made  very  elabo- 
ate  arrangements,  both  with  the  Astronomer  Royal 
and  with  the  telegraph  companies,  to  determine 
the  longitude  of  Gibraltar  by  telegraphic  signals. 
The  most  difficult  part  of  the  operation  was  the 
transfer  of  the  signals  from  the  end  of  the  land 
line  into  the  cable,  which  had  to  be  done  by  hand, 
because  the  cable  companies  were  not  willing  to 
trust  to  an  automatic  action  of  any  sort  between 
the  land  line  and  the  cable.  It  was  therefore 
necessary  to  show  the  operator  at  the  point  of 
junction  how  signals  were  to  be  transmitted.  This 
required  a  journey  to  Port  Curno,  at  the  very  end 
of  the  Land's  End,  several  miles  beyond  the  termi- 
nus of  the  railway.  It  was  the  most  old-time  place 
I  ever  saw ;  one  might  have  imagined  himself 
thrown  back  into  the  days  of  the  Lancasters.  The 
thatched  inn  had  a  hard  stone  floor,  with  a  layer 
of  loose  sand  scattered  over  it  as  a  carpet  in  the 
bedroom.  My  linguistic  qualities  were  put  to  a 
severe  test  in  talking  with  the  landlady.  But  the 
cable  operators  were  pleasing  and  intelligent  young 
gentlemen,  and  I  had  no  difficulty  in  making  them 
understand  how  the  work  was  to  be  done. 


300    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

The  manager  of  the  cable  was  Sir  James  Ander- 
son, who  had  formerly  commanded  a  Cunard  steam- 
ship from  Boston,  and  was  well  known  to  the  Har- 
vard professors,  with  whom  he  was  a  favorite.  I 
had  met  him,  or  at  least  seen  him,  at  a  meeting 
of  the  American  Academy  ten  years  before,  where 
he  was  introduced  by  one  of  his  Harvard  friends. 
After  commanding  the  ship  that  laid  the  first  Atlan- 
tic cable,  he  was  made  manager  of  the  cable  line 
from  England  to  Gibraltar.  He  gave  me  a  letter 
to  the  head  operator  at  Gibraltar,  the  celebrated 
de  Sauty. 

I  say  "  the  celebrated,"  but  may  it  not  be  that 
this  appellation  can  only  suggest  the  vanity  of  all 
human  greatness  ?  It  just  occurs  to  me  that  many 
of  the  present  generation  may  not  even  have  heard 
of  the  — 

Whispering  Boanerges,  son  of  silent  thunder, 
Holding  talk  with  nations, 

immortalized  by  Holmes  in  one  of  his  humorously 
scientific  poems.  During  the  two  short  weeks  that 
the  first  Atlantic  cable  transmitted  its  signals,  his 
fame  spread  over  the  land,  for  the  moment  obscur- 
ing by  its  brilliancy  that  of  Thomson,  Field,  and 
all  others  who  had  taken  part  in  designing  and  lay- 
ing the  cable.  On  the  breaking  down  of  the  cable 
he  lapsed  into  his  former  obscurity.  I  asked  him 
if  he  had  ever  seen  Holmes's  production.  He  re- 
plied that  he  had  received  a  copy  of  "  The  Atlantic 
Monthly  "  containing  it  from  the  poet  himself,  ac- 
companied by  a  note  saying  that  he  might  find  in 


SCIENTIFIC  ENGLAND  301 

it  something  of  interest.  He  had  been  overwhelmed 
with  invitations  to  continue  his  journey  from  New- 
foundland to  the  United  States  and  lecture  on  the 
cable,  but  was  sensible  enough  to  decline  them. 

The  rest  of  the  story  of  the  telegraphic  longi- 
tude is  short.  The  first  news  which  de  Sauty  had 
to  give  me  was  that  the  cable  was  broken,  —  just 
where,  he  did  not  know,  and  would  not  be  able 
soon  to  discover.  After  the  break  was  located, 
an  unknown  period  would  be  required  to  raise  the 
cable,  find  the  place,  and  repair  the  breach.  The 
weather,  on  the  day  of  the  eclipse,  was  more  than 
half  cloudy,  so  that  I  did  not  succeed  in  making 
observations  of  such  value  as  would  justify  my 
waiting  indefinitely  for  the  repair  of  the  cable,  and 
the  project  of  determining  the  longitude  had  to  be 
abandoned. 


XI 

MEN   AND    THINGS    IN    EUROPE 

WE  went  from  Gibraltar  to  Berlin  in  January 
by  way  of  Italy.  The  Mediterranean  is  a  charm- 
ing sea  in  summer,  but  in  winter  is  a  good  deal 
like  the  Atlantic.  The  cause  of  the  blueness  of  its 
water  is  not  completely  settled ;  but  its  sharing  this 
color  with  Lake  Geneva,  which  is  tinged  with  de- 
tritus from  the  shore,  might  lead  one  to  ascribe  it 
to  substances  held  in  solution.  The  color  is  notice- 
able even  in  the  harbor  of  Malta,  to  which  we  had 
a  pleasant  though  not  very  smooth  passage  of  five 
days. 

Here  was  our  first  experience  of  an  Italian  town 
of  a  generation  ago.  I  had  no  sooner  started  to 
take  a  walk  than  a  so-called  guide,  who  spoke  what 
he  thought  was  English,  got  on  my  track,  and  in- 
sisted on  showing  me  everything.  If  I  started  to- 
ward a  shop,  he  ran  in  before  me,  invited  me  in, 
asked  what  I  would  like  to  buy,  and  told  the  shop- 
man to  show  the  gentleman  something.  I  could 
not  get  rid  of  him  till  I  returned  to  the  hotel,  and 
then  he  had  the  audacity  to  want  a  fee  for  his 
services.  I  do  not  think  he  got  it.  Everything 
of  interest  was  easily  seen,  and  we  only  stopped 


MEN  AND  THINGS  IN  EUROPE  303 

to  take  the  first  Italian  steamer  to  Messina.  We 
touched  at  Syracuse  and  Catania,  but  did  not  land. 

Mtua,  from  the  sea,  is  one  of  the  grandest  sights 
I  ever  saw.  Its  snow-covered  cone  seems  to  rise 
on  all  sides  out  of  the  sea  or  the  plain,  and  to 
penetrate  the  blue  sky.  In  this  it  gives  an  impres- 
sion like  that  of  the  Weisshorn  seen  from  Randa, 
but  gains  by  its  isolation. 

At  Messina,  of  course,  our  steamer  was  visited  by 
a  commission naire,  who  asked  me  in  good  English 
whether  I  wanted  a  hotel.  I  told  him  that  I  had 
already  decided  upon  a  hotel,  and  therefore  did 
not  need  his  services.  But  it  turned  out  that  he 
belonged  to  the  very  hotel  I  was  going  to,  and  was 
withal  an  American,  a  native-born  Yankee,  in  fact, 
and  so  obviously  honest  that  I  placed  myself  unre- 
servedly in  his  hands,  —  something  which  I  never 
did  with  one  of  his  profession  before  or  since. 
He  said  the  first  thing  was  to  get  our  baggage 
through  the  custom-house,  which  he  could  do  with- 
out any  trouble,  at  the  cost  of  a  franc.  He  was 
as  good  as  his  word.  The  Italian  custom-house 
was  marked  by  primitive  rigor,  and  baggage  was 
commonly  subjected  to  a  very  thorough  search. 
But  my  man  was  evidently  well  known  and  fully 
trusted.  I  was  asked  to  raise  the  lid  of  one  trunk, 
which  I  did ;  the  official  looked  at  it,  with  his  hands 
in  his  pockets,  gave  a  nod,  and  the  affair  was  over. 
My  Yankee  friend  collected  one  franc  for  that  part 
of  the  business.  He  told  us  all  about  the  place, 
changed  our  money  so  as  to  take  advantage  of  the 


304    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

premium  on  gold,  and  altogether  looked  out  for 
our  interests  in  a  way  to  do  honor  to  his  tribe.  I 
thought  there  might  be  some  curious  story  of  the 
way  in  which  a  New  Englander  of  such  qualities 
could  have  dropped  into  such  a  place,  but  it  will 
have  to  be  left  to  imagination. 

We  reached  the  Bay  of  Naples  in  the  morning 
twilight,  after  making  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to 
locate  Scylla  and  Charybdis.  If  they  ever  existed, 
they  must  have  disappeared.  Vesuvius  was  now 
and  then  lighting  up  the  clouds  with  its  intermit- 
tent flame.  But  we  had  passed  a  most  uncomfort- 
able night,  and  the  morning  was  wet  and  chilly. 
A  view  requires  something  more  than  the  objective 
to  make  it  appreciated,  and  the  effect  of  a  rough 
voyage  and  bad  weather  was  such  as  to  deprive  of 
all  its  beauty  what  is  considered  one  of  the  finest 
views  in  the  world.  Moreover,  the  experience  made 
me  so  ill-natured  that  I  was  determined  that  the 
custom-house  officer  at  the  landing  should  have  no 
fee  from  me.  The  only  article  that  could  have 
been  subject  to  duty  was  on  top  of  everything  in 
the  trunk,  except  a  single  covering  of  some  loose 
garment,  so  that  only  a  touch  was  necessary  to  find 
it.  When  it  came  to  the  examination,  the  officer 
threw  the  top  till  contemptuously  aside,  and  devoted 
himself  to  a  thorough  search  of  the  bottom.  The 
only  unusual  object  he  stumbled  upon  was  a  spy- 
glass inclosed  in  a  shield  of  morocco.  Perhaps  a 
gesture  and  a  remark  on  my  part  aroused  his  sus- 
picions. He  opened  the  glass,  tried  to  take  it  to 


MEN  AND   THINGS  IN  EUROPE  305 

pieces,  inspected  it  inside  and  out,  and  was  so  dis- 
gusted with  his  failure  to  find  anything  contraband 
in  it  that  he  returned  everything  to  the  trunk,  and 
let  us  off. 

It  is  commonly  and  quite  justly  supposed  that 
the  more  familiar  the  traveler  is  with  the  language 
of  the  place  he  visits,  the  better  he  will  get  along. 
It  is  a  common  experience  to  find  that  even  when 
you  can  pronounce  the  language,  you  cannot  un- 
derstand what  is  said.  But  there  are  exceptions  to 
all  rules,  and  circumstances  now  and  then  occur 
in  which  one  thus  afflicted  has  an  advantage  over 
the  native.  You  can  talk  to  him,  while  he  cannot 
talk  to  you.  There  was  an  amusing  case  of  this 
kind  at  Munich.  The  only  train  that  would  take 
us  to  Berlin  before  nightfall  of  the  same  day 
left  at  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning,  by  a  certain 
route.  There  was  at  Munich  what  we  call  a  union 
station.  I  stopped  at  the  first  ticket-office  where 
I  saw  the  word  "  Berlin  "  on  the  glass,  asked  for  a 
ticket  good  in  the  train  that  was  going  to  leave  at 
eight  o'clock  the  next  morning  for  Berlin,  and  took 
what  the  seller  gave  me.  He  was  a  stupid-looking 
fellow,  so  when  I  got  to  my  hotel  I  showed  the 
ticket  to  a  friend.  "  That  is  not  the  ticket  that 
you  want  at  all,"  said  he  ;  "it  will  take  you  by  a 
circuitous  route  in  a  train  that  does  not  leave  until 
after  nine,  and  you  will  not  reach  Berlin  until  long 
after  dark."  I  went  directly  back  to  the  station 
and  showed  my  ticket  to  the  agent. 

"I  —  asked  —  you  —  for  —  a  —  ticket  —  good 


306    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

—  in  —  the  —  train  —  which  —  leaves  —  at  — 
eight  —  o'  —  clock.     This  —  ticket  —  is  —  not 

—  good  —  in  —  that  —  train.     Sie  —  haben  — 
mich  —  betriigen.     I  —  want  —  you  —  to  —  take 

—  the  —  ticket  —  back  —  and  —  return  —  me  — 
the  —  money.     What  —  you  —  say  —  can  —  I  — 
not  —  understand." 

He  expostulated,  gesticulated,  and  fumed,  but  I 
kept  up  the  bombardment  until  he  had  to  sur- 
render. He  motioned  to  me  to  step  round  into  the 
office,  where  he  took  the  ticket  and  returned  the 
money.  I  mention  the  matter  because  taking  back 
a  ticket  is  said  to  be  quite  unusual  on  a  German 
railway. 

At  Berlin,  the  leading  astronomers  then,  as  now, 
were  Forster,  director  of  the  observatory,  and  Au- 
wers,  permanent  secretary  of  the  Academy  of  Sci- 
ences. I  was  especially  interested  in  the  latter,  as 
we  had  started  in  life  nearly  at  the  same  time,  and 
had  done  much  work  on  similar  lines.  It  was  sev- 
eral days  before  I  made  his  acquaintance,  as  I  did 
not  know  that  the  rule  on  the  Continent  is  that  the 
visitor  must  make  the  first  call,  or  at  least  make  it 
known  by  direct  communication  that  he  would  be 
pleased  to  see  the  resident;  otherwise  it  is  pre- 
sumed that  he  does  not  wish  to  see  callers.  This 
is  certainly  the  more  logical  system,  but  it  is  not  so 
agreeable  to  the  visiting  stranger  as  ours  is.  The 
art  of  making  the  latter  feel  at  home  is  not  brought 
to  such  perfection  on  the  Continent  as  in  England ; 


MEN  AND  THINGS  IN  EUROPE  307 

perhaps  the  French  understand  it  less  than  any 
other  people.  But  none  can  be  pleasanter  than 
the  Germans,  when  you  once  make  their  acquaint- 
ance ;  and  we  shall  always  remember  with  pleasure 
the  winter  we  passed  in  Berlin. 

To-day,  Auwers  stands  at  the  head  of  German 
astronomy.  In  him  is  seen  the  highest  type  of  the 
scientific  investigator  of  our  time,  one  perhaps  bet- 
ter developed  in  Germany  than  in  any  other  country. 
The  work  of  men  of  this  type  is  marked  by  minute 
and  careful  research,  untiring  industry  in  the  accu- 
mulation of  facts,  caution  in  propounding  new  the- 
ories or  explanations,  and,  above  all,  the  absence  of 
effort  to  gain  recognition  by  being  the  first  to  make 
a  discovery.  When  men  are  ambitious  to  figure 
as  Newtons  of  some  great  principle,  there  is  a  con- 
stant temptation  to  publish  unverified  speculations 
which  are  likely  rather  to  impede  than  to  promote 
the  advance  of  knowledge.  The  result  of  Auwers's 
conscientiousness  is  that,  notwithstanding  his  em- 
inence in  his  science,  there  are  few  astronomers  of 
note  whose  works  are  less  fitted  for  popular  expo- 
sition than  his.  His  specialty  has  been  the  treat- 
ment of  all  questions  concerning  the  positions  and 
motions  of  the  stars.  This  work  has  required  ac- 
curate observations  of  position,  with  elaborate  and 
careful  investigations  of  a  kind  that  offer  no  fea- 
ture to  attract  public  attention,  and  only  in  excep- 
tional cases  lead  to  conclusions  that  would  interest 
the  general  reader.  He  considers  no  work  as  ready 
for  publication  until  it  is  completed  in  every  detail. 


308    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

The  old  astronomical  observations  of  which  I 
was  in  quest  might  well  have  been  made  by  other 
astronomers  than  those  of  Paris,  so  while  awaiting 
the  end  of  the  war  I  tried  to  make  a  thorough 
search  of  the  writings  of  the  mediaeval  astronomers 
in  the  Eoyal  Library.  If  one  knew  exactly  what 
books  he  wanted,  and  had  plenty  of  time  at  his 
disposal,  he  would  find  no  difficulty  in  consulting 
them  in  any  of  the  great  Continental  libraries. 
But  at  the  time  of  my  visit,  notwithstanding  the 
cordiality  with  which  all  the  officials,  from  Pro- 
fessor Lepsius  down,  were  disposed  to  second  my 
efforts,  the  process  of  getting  any  required  book 
was  very  elaborate.  Although  one  could  obtain  a 
book  on  the  same  day  he  ordered  it,  if  he  went  in 
good  time,  it  was  advisable  to  leave  the  order  the 
day  before,  if  possible.  When,  as  in  the  present 
case,  one  book  only  suggests  another,  this  a  third, 
and  so  on,  in  an  endless  chain,  the  carrying  on  of 
an  extended  research  is  very  tedious. 

One  feature  of  the  library  strongly  impressed 
me  with  the  comparatively  backward  state  of 
mathematical  science  in  our  own  country.  As  is 
usual  in  the  great  European  libraries,  those  books 
which  are  most  consulted  are  placed  in  the  general 
reading-room,  where  any  one  can  have  access  to 
them,  at  any  moment.  It  was  surprising  to  see 
amongst  these  books  a  set  of  Crelle's  "  Journal  of 
Mathematics,"  and  to  find  it  well  worn  by  constant 
use.  At  that  time,  so  far  as  I  could  learn,  there 
were  not  more  than  two  or  three  sets  of  the  Journal 


MEN  AND   THINGS  IN  EUROPE  309 

in  the  United  States ;  and  these  were  almost  unused. 
Even  the  Library  of  Congress  did  not  contain  a  set. 
There  has  been  a  great  change  since  that  time,  — 
a  change  in  which  the  Johns  Hopkins  University 
took  the  lead,  by  inviting  Sylvester  to  this  country, 
and  starting  a  mathematical  school  of  the  highest 
grade.  Other  universities  followed  its  example  to 
such  an  extent  that,  to-day,  an  American  student 
need  not  leave  his  own  country  to  hear  a  master  in 
any  branch  of  mathematics. 

I  believe  it  was  Dr.  B.  A.  Gould  who  called  the 
Pulkova  Observatory  the  astronomical  capital  of  the 
world.  This  institution  was  founded  in  1839  by 
the  Emperor  Nicholas,  on  the  initiative  of  his  great- 
est astronomer.  It  is  situated  some  twelve  miles 
south  of  St.  Petersburg,  not  far  from  the  railway 
between  that  city  and  Berlin,  and  gets  its  name 
from  a  peasant  village  in  the  neighborhood.  From 
its  foundation  it  has  taken  the  lead  in  exact  mea- 
surements relating  to  the  motion  of  the  earth  and 
the  positions  of  the  principal  stars.  An  important 
part  of  its  equipment  is  an  astronomical  library, 
which  is  perhaps  the  most  complete  in  existence. 
This,  added  to  all  its  other  attractions,  induced  me 
to  pay  a  visit  to  Pulkova.  Otto  Struve,  the  director, 
had  been  kind  enough  to  send  me  a  message,  ex- 
pressing the  hope  that  I  would  pay  him  a  visit,  and 
giving  directions  about  telegraphing  in  advance, 
so  as  to  insure  the  delivery  of  the  dispatch.  The 
time  from  Berlin  to  St.  Petersburg  is  about  forty- 


310    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

eight  hours,  the  only  through  train  leaving  and 
arriving  in  the  evening.  On  the  morning  of  the 
day  that  the  train  was  due  I  sent  the  dispatch. 
Early  in  the  afternoon,  as  the  train  was  stopping 
at  a  way  station,  I  saw  an  official  running  hastily 
from  one  car  to  another,  looking  into  each  with 
some  concern.  When  he  came  to  my  door,  he 
asked  if  I  had  sent  a  telegram  to  Estafetta.  I 
told  him  I  had.  He  then  informed  me  that  Esta- 
fetta had  not  received  it.  But  the  train  was  al- 
ready beginning  to  move,  so  there  was  no  further 
chance  to  get  information.  The  comical  part  of 
the  matter  was  that  "  Estafetta  "  merely  means  a 
post  or  postman,  and  that  the  directions,  as  Struve 
had  given  them,  were  to  have  the  dispatch  sent  by 
postman  from  the  station  to  Pulkova. 

It  was  late  in  the  evening  when  the  train  reached 
Zarsko-Selo,  the  railway  station  for  Pulkova, 
which  is  about  five  miles  away.  The  station-mas- 
ter told  me  that  no  carriage  from  Pulkova  was 
waiting  for  me,  which  tended  to  confirm  the  fear 
that  the  dispatch  had  not  been  received.  After 
making  known  my  plight,  I  took  a  seat  in  the  sta- 
tion and  awaited  the  course  of  events,  in  some 
doubt  what  to  do.  Only  a  few  minutes  had  elapsed 
when  a  good-looking  peasant,  well  wrapped  in  a  fur 
overcoat,  with  a  whip  in  his  hand,  looked  in  at  the 
door,  and  pronounced  very  distinctly  the  words, 
"  Observatorio  Pulkova."  Ah !  this  is  Struve's 
driver  at  last,  thought  I,  and  I  followed  the  man 
to  the  door.  But  when  I  looked  at  the  conveyance, 


MEN  AND   THINGS  IN  EUROPE  311 

doubt  once  more  supervened.  It  was  scarcely  more 
than  a  sledge,  and  was  drawn  by  a  single  horse,  evi- 
dently more  familiar  with  hard  work  than  good 
feeding.  This  did  not  seem  exactly  the  vehicle 
that  the  great  Russian  observatory  would  send  out 
to  meet  a  visitor ;  yet  it  was  a  far  country,  and  I 
was  not  acquainted  with  its  customs. 

The  way  in  which  my  doubt  was  dispelled  shows 
that  there  is  one  subject  besides  love  on  which  dif- 
ference of  language  is  no  bar  to  the  communica- 
tion of  ideas.  This  is  the  desire  of  the  uncivilized 
man  for  a  little  coin  of  the  realm.  In  South  Af- 
rica, Zulu  chiefs,  who  do  not  know  one  other  word 
of  English,  can  say  "  shilh'ng  "  with  unmistakable 
distinctness.  My  Russian  driver  did  not  know 
even  this  little  English  word,  but  he  knew  enough 
of  the  universal  language.  When  we  had  made  a 
good  start  on  the  snow-covered  prairie,  he  stopped 
his  horse  for  a  moment,  looked  round  at  me  inquir- 
ingly, raised  his  hand,  and  stretched  out  two  fin- 
gers so  that  I  could  see  them  against  the  starlit  sky. 

I  nodded  assent. 

Then  he  drew  his  overcoat  tightly  around  him 
with  a  gesture  of  shivering  from  the  cold,  beat  his 
hands  upon  his  breast  as  if  to  warm  it,  and  again 
looked  inquiringly  at  me. 

I  nodded  again. 

The  bargain  was  complete.  He  was  to  have  two 
rubles  for  the  drive,  and  a  little  something  to  warm 
up  his  shivering  breast.  So  he  could  not  be 
Struve's  man. 


312    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

There  is  no  welcome  warmer  than  a  Russian  one, 
and  none  in  any  country  warmer  than  that  which 
the  visiting  astronomer  receives  at  an  observa- 
tory. Great  is  the  contrast  between  the  winter 
sky  of  a  clear  moonless  night  and  the  interior  of  a 
dining-room,  forty  feet  square,  with  a  big  blazing 
fire  at  one  end  and  a  table  loaded  with  eatables  in 
the  middle.  The  fact  that  the  visitor  had  never 
before  met  one  of  his  hosts  detracted  nothing  from 
the  warmth  of  his  reception. 

The  organizer  of  the  observatory,  and  its  first  di- 
rector, was  Wilhelm  Struve,  father  of  the  one  who 
received  me,  and  equally  great  as  man  and  astrono- 
mer. Like  many  other  good  Russians,  he  was  the 
father  of  a  large  family.  One  of  his  sons  was  for 
ten  years  the  Russian  minister  at  Washington,  and 
as  popular  a  diplomatist  as  ever  lived  among  us. 
The  instruments  which  Struve  designed  sixty  years 
ago  still  do  as  fine  work  as  any  in  the  world ;  but 
one  may  suspect  this  to  be  due  more  to  the  astro- 
nomers who  handle  them  than  to  the  instruments 
themselves. 

The  air  is  remarkably  clear  ;  the  entrance  to  St. 
Petersburg,  ten  or  twelve  miles  north,  is  distinctly 
visible,  and  Struve  told  me  that  during  the  Cri- 
mean war  he  could  see,  through  the  great  telescope, 
the  men  on  the  decks  of  the  British  ships  besieging 
Kronstadt,  thirty  miles  away. 

One  drawback  from  which  the  astronomers  suffer 
is  the  isolation  of  the  place.  The  village  at  the 
foot  of  the  little  hill  is  inhabited  only  by  peasants, 


MEN  AND  THINGS  IN  EUROPE  313 

and  the  astronomers  and  employees  have  nearly  all 
to  be  housed  in  the  observatory  buildings.  There 
is  no  society  but  their  own  nearer  than  the  capital. 
At  the  time  of  my  visit  the  scientific  staff  was 
almost  entirely  German  or  Swedish,  by  birth  or  lan- 
guage. In  the  state,  two  opposing  parties  are  the 
Russian,  which  desires  the  ascendency  of  the  native 
Muscovites,  and  the  German,  which  appreciates  the 
fact  that  the  best  and  most  valuable  of  the  Tsar's 
subjects  are  of  German  or  other  foreign  descent. 
During  the  past  twenty  years  the  Russian  party 
has  gradually  got  the  upper  hand  ;  and  the  result 
of  this  ascendency  at  Pulkova  will  be  looked  for 
with  much  solicitude  by  astronomers  everywhere. 

Once  a  year  the  lonely  life  of  the  astronomers  is 
enlivened  by  a  grand  feast  —  that  of  the  Russian 
New  Year.  One  object  of  the  great  dining-room 
which  I  have  mentioned,  the  largest  room,  I  be- 
lieve, in  the  whole  establishment,  was  to  make  this 
feast  possible.  My  visit  took  place  early  in  March, 
so  that  I  did  not  see  the  celebration ;  but  from 
what  I  have  heard,  the  little  colony  does  what  it 
can  to  make  up  for  a  year  of  ennui.  Every  twenty- 
five  years  it  celebrates  a  jubilee  ;  the  second  came 
off  in  1889. 

There  is  much  to  interest  the  visitor  in  a  Rus- 
sian peasant  village,  and  that  of  Pulkova  has  fea- 
tures some  of  which  I  have  never  seen  described. 
Above  the  door  of  each  log  hut  is  the  name  of  the 
occupant,  and  below  the  name  is  a  rude  picture  of 
a  bucket,  hook,  or  some  other  piece  of  apparatus 


314    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

used  in  extinguishing  fire.  Inside,  the  furniture 
is  certainly  meagre  enough,  yet  one  could  not  see 
why  the  occupants  should  be  otherwise  than  com- 
fortable. I  know  of  no  good  reason  why  igno- 
rance should  imply  unhappiness  ;  altogether,  there 
is  some  good  room  for  believing  that  the  less  civil- 
ized races  can  enjoy  themselves,  in  their  own  way, 
about  as  well  as  we  can.  What  impressed  me  as 
the  one  serious  hardship  of  the  peasantry  was  their 
hours  of  labor.  Just  how  many  hours  of  the 
twenty-four  these  beings  find  for  sleep  was  not 
clear  to  the  visitor  ;  they  seemed  to  be  at  work  all 
day,  and  at  midnight  many  of  them  had  to  start 
on  their  way  to  St.  Petersburg  with  a  cartload  for 
the  market.  A  church  ornamented  with  tinsel  is 
a  feature  of  every  Russian  village  ;  so  also  are  the 
priests.  The  only  two  I  saw  were  sitting  on  a 
fence,  wearing  garments  that  did  not  give  evidence 
of  having  known  water  since  they  were  made. 
One  great  drawback  to  the  growth  of  manufac- 
tures in  Russia  is  the  number  of  feast  days,  on 
which  the  native  operators  must  one  and  all  aban- 
don their  work,  regardless  of  consequences. 

The  astronomical  observations  made  at  Pulkova 
are  not  published  annually,  as  are  those  made  at 
most  of  the  other  national  observatories;  but  a 
volume  relating  to  one  subject  is  issued  whenever 
the  work  is  done.  When  I  was  there,  the  volumes 
containing  the  earlier  meridian  observations  were 
in  press.  Struve  and  his  chief  assistant,  Dr. 
Wagner,  used  to  pore  nightly  over  the  proof  sheets, 


MEN  AND  THINGS  IN  EUROPE  315 

bestowing  on  every  word  and  detail  a  minute  at- 
tention which  less  patient  astronomers  would  have 
found  extremely  irksome. 

Dr.  Wagner  was  a  son-in-law  of  Hansen,  the 
astronomer  of  the  little  ducal  observatory  at  Gotha, 
as  was  also  our  Bayard  Taylor.  My  first  meeting 
with  Hansen,  which  occurred  after  my  return  to 
Berlin,  was  accompanied  with  some  trepidation. 
Modest  as  was  the  public  position  that  he  held,  he 
may  now  fairly  be  considered  the  greatest  master 
of  celestial  mechanics  since  Laplace.  In  what 
order  Leverrier,  Delaunay,  Adams,  and  Hill  should 
follow  him,  it  is  not  necessary  to  decide.  To  many 
readers  it  will  seem  singular  to  place  any  name 
ahead  of  that  of  the  master  who  pointed  out  the 
position  of  Neptune  before  a  human  eye  had  ever 
recognized  it.  But  this  achievement,  great  as  it 
was,  was  more  remarkable  for  its  boldness  and 
brilliancy  than  for  its  inherent  difficulty.  If  the 
work  had  to  be  done  over  again  to-day,  there  are  a 
number  of  young  men  who  would  be  as  successful 
as  Leverrier ;  but  there  are  none  who  would  at- 
tempt to  reinvent  the  methods  of  Han  sen,  or  even 
to  improve  radically  upon  them.  Their  main  fea- 
ture is  the  devising  of  new  and  refined  methods  of 
computing  the  variations  in  the  motions  of  a  planet 
produced  by  the  attraction  of  all  the  other  planets. 
As  Laplace  left  this  subject,  the  general  character 
of  these  variations  could  be  determined  without 
difficulty,  but  the  computations  could  not  be  made 
with  mathematical  exactness.  Hansen's  methods 


316    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

led  to  results  so  precise  that,  if  they  were  fully 
carried  out,  it  is  doubtful  whether  any  deviation 
between  the  predicted  and  the  observed  motions  of 
a  planet  could  be  detected  by  the  most  refined 
observation. 

At  the  time  of  my  visit  Mrs.  Wagner  was  suffer- 
ing from  a  severe  illness,  of  which  the  crisis  passed 
while  I  was  at  Pulkova,  and  left  her,  as  was  sup- 
posed, on  the  road  to  recovery.  I  was,  of  course, 
very  desirous  of  meeting  so  famous  a  man  as  Han- 
sen.  He  was  expected  to  preside  at  a  session  of  the 
German  commission  on  the  transit  of  Venus,  which 
was  to  be  held  in  Berlin  about  the  time  of  my  re- 
turn thither  from  Pulkova.  The  opportunity  was 
therefore  open  of  bringing  a  message  of  good  news 
from  his  daughter.  Apart  from  this,  the  prospect 
of  the  meeting  might  have  been  embarrassing.  The 
fact  is  that  I  was  at  odds  with  him  on  a  scientific 
question,  and  he  was  a  man  who  did  not  take  a 
charitable  view  of  those  who  differed  from  him  in 
opinion. 

He  was  the  author  of  a  theory,  current  thirty  or 
forty  years  ago,  that  the  farther  side  of  the  moon  is 
composed  of  denser  materials  than  the  side  turned 
toward  us.  As  a  result  of  this,  the  centre  of  grav- 
ity of  the  moon  was  supposed  to  be  farther  from  us 
than  the  actual  centre  of  her  globe.  It  followed 
that,  although  neither  atmosphere  nor  water  existed 
on  our  side  of  the  moon,  the  other  side  might  have 
both.  Here  was  a  very  tempting  field  into  which 
astronomical  speculators  stepped,  to  clothe  the  in- 


MEN  AND   THINGS  IN  EUROPE  317 

visible  hemisphere  of  the  moon  with  a  beautiful  ter- 
restrial landscape,  and  people  it  as  densely  as  they 
pleased  with  beings  like  ourselves.  If  these  beings 
should  ever  attempt  to  explore  the  other  half  of 
their  own  globe,  they  would  find  themselves  ascend- 
ing to  a  height  completely  above  the  limits  of  their 
atmosphere.  Hansen  himself  never  countenanced 
such  speculations  as  these,  but  confined  his  claims 
to  the  simple  facts  he  supposed  proven. 

In  1868  I  had  published  a  little  paper  showing 
what  I  thought  a  fatal  defect,  a  vicious  circle  in 
fact,  in  Hansen's  reasoning  on  this  subject.  Not 
long  before  my  visit,  Delaunay  had  made  this  paper 
the  basis  of  a  communication  to  the  French  Acad- 
emy of  Sciences,  in  which  he  not  only  indorsed  my 
views,  but  sought  to  show  the  extreme  improbabil- 
ity of  Hansen's  theory  on  other  grounds. 

When  I  first  reached  Germany,  on  my  way  from 
Italy,  I  noticed  copies  of  a  blue  pamphlet  lying  on 
the  tables  of  the  astronomers.  Apparently,  the  pa- 
per had  been  plentifully  distributed  ;  but  it  was  not 
until  I  reached  Berlin  that  I  found  it  was  Hansen's 
defense  against  my  strictures,  —  a  defense  in  which 
mathematics  were  not  unmixed  with  scathing  sar- 
casm at  the  expense  of  both  Delaunay  and  myself. 
The  case  brought  to  mind  a  warm  discussion  be- 
tween Hansen  and  Encke,  in  the  pages  of  a  scien- 
tific journal,  some  fifteen  years  before.  At  the  time 
it  had  seemed  intensely  comical  to  see  two  enraged 
combatants  —  for  so  I  amused  myself  by  fancying 
them  —  hurling  algebraic  formulae,  of  frightful 


318    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

complexity,  at  each  other's  heads.  I  did  not  then 
dream  that  I  should  live  to  be  an  object  of  the  same 
sort  of  attack,  and  that  from  Hansen  himself. 

To  be  revised,  pulled  to  pieces,  or  superseded, 
as  science  advances,  is  the  common  fate  of  most 
astronomical  work,  even  the  best.  It  does  not 
follow  that  it  has  been  done  in  vain ;  if  good,  it 
forms  a  foundation  on  which  others  will  build. 
But  not  every  great  investigator  can  look  on  with 
philosophic  calm  when  he  sees  his  work  thus 
treated,  and  Hansen  was  among  the  last  who  could. 

Under  these  circumstances,  it  was  a  serious  ques- 
tion what  sort  of  reception  Hansen  would  accord 
to  a  reviser  of  his  conclusions  who  should  venture 
to  approach  him.  I  determined  to  assume  an  atti- 
tude that  would  show  no  consciousness  of  offense, 
and  was  quite  successful.  Our  meeting  was  not 
attended  by  any  explosion  ;  I  gave  him  the  plea- 
sant message  with  which  I  was  charged  from  his 
daughter,  and,  a  few  days  later,  sat  by  his  side  at 
a  dinner  of  the  German  commission  on  the  coming 
transit  of  Venus. 

As  Hansen  was  Germany's  greatest  master  in 
mathematical  astronomy,  so  was  the  venerable 
Argelander  in  the  observational  side  of  the  science. 
\^Ie/was  of  the  same  age  as  the  newly  crowned 
Emperor,  and  the  two  were  playmates  at  the  time 
Germany  was  being  overrun  by  the  armies  of  Na- 
poleon. He  was  held  in  love  and  respect  by  the 
entire  generation  of  young  astronomers,  both  Ger- 
mans and  foreigners,  many  of  whom  were  proud  to 


MEN  AND   THINGS  IN  EUROPE  319 

have  had  him  as  their  preceptor.  Among  these 
was  Dr.  B.  A.  Gould,  who  frequently  related  a 
story  of  the  astronomer's  wit.  When  with  him  as 
a  student,  Gould  was  beardless,  but  had  a  good 
head  of  hair.  Returning  some  years  later,  he  had 
become  bald,  but  had  made  up  for  it  by  having  a 
full,  long  beard.  He  entered  Argelander's  study 
unannounced.  At  first  the  astronomer  did  not 
recognize  him. 

66  Do  you  not  know  me,  Herr  Professor?  " 

The  astronomer  looked  more  closely.  "  Mine 
Gott !  It  is  Gould  mit  his  hair  struck  through  !  " 

Argelander  was  more  than  any  one  else  the 
founder  of  that  branch  of  his  science  which  treats 
of  variable  stars.  His  methods  have  been  followed 
by  his  successors  to  the  present  time.  It  was  his 
policy  to  make  the  best  use  he  could  of  the  instru- 
ments at  his  disposal,  rather  than  to  invent  new 
ones  that  might  prove  of  doubtful  utility.  The 
results  of  his  work  seem  to  justify  this  policy. 

We  passed  the  last  month  of  the  winter  in  Ber- 
lin waiting  for  the  war  to  close,  so  that  we  could 
visit  Paris.  Poor  France  had  at  length  to  suc- 
cumb, and  in  the  latter  part  of  March,  we  took 
almost  the  first  train  that  passed  the  lines. 

Delaunay  was  then  director  of  the  Paris  Observa- 
tory, having  succeeded  Leverrier  when  the  emperor 
petulantly  removed  the  latter  from  his  po'sition.  I 
had  for  some  time  kept  up  an  occasional  corre- 
spondence with  Delaunay,  and  while  in  England, 
the  autumn  before,  had  forwarded  a  message  to 


320    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

him,  through  the  Prussian  lines,  by  the  good 
offices  of  the  London  legation  and  Mr.  Washburn. 
He  was  therefore  quite  prepared  for  our  arrival. 
The  evacuation  of  a  country  by  a  hostile  army  is 
rather  a  slow  process,  so  that  the  German  troops 
were  met  everywhere  on  the  road,  even  in  France. 
They  had  left  Paris  just  before  we  arrived  ;  but 
the  French  national  army  was  not  there,  the  Com- 
munists having  taken  possession  of  the  city  as  fast 
as  the  Germans  withdrew.  As  we  passed  out  of 
the  station,  the  first  object  to  strike  our  eyes  was 
a  flaming  poster  addressed  to  "  Citoyens,"  and 
containing  one  of  the  manifestoes  which  the  Com- 
munist government  was  continually  issuing. 

Of  course  we  made  an  early  call  on  Mr.  Wash- 
burn.  His  career  in  Paris  was  one  of  the  triumphs 
of  diplomacy  ;  he  had  cared  for  the  interests  of 
German  subjects  in  Paris  in  such  a  way  as  to  earn 
the  warm  recognition  both  of  the  emperor  and  of 
Bismarck,  and  at  the  same  time  had  kept  on  such 
good  terms  with  the  French  as  to  be  not  less 
esteemed  by  them.  He  was  surprised  that  we  had 
chosen  such  a  time  to  visit  Paris  ;  but  I  told  him 
the  situation,  the  necessity  of  my  early  return 
home,  and  my  desire  to  make  a  careful  search  in 
the  records  of  the  Paris  Observatory  for  observa- 
tions made  two  centuries  ago.  He  advised  us  to 
take  up  our  quarters  as  near  to  the  observatory  as 
convenient,  in  order  that  we  might  not  have  to 
pass  through  the  portions  of  the  city  which  were 
likely  to  be  the  scenes  of  disturbance. 


MEN  AND  THINGS  IN  EUROPE  321 

We  were  received  at  the  observatory  with  a 
warmth  of  welcome  that  might  be  expected  to  ac- 
company the  greeting  of  the  first  foreign  visitor, 
after  a  siege  of  six  months.  Yet  a  tinge  of  sad- 
ness in  the  meeting  was  unavoidable.  Delaunay 
immediately  began  lamenting  the  condition  of  his 
poor  ruined  country,  despoiled  of  two  of  its  pro- 
vinces by  a  foreign  foe,  condemned  to  pay  an  enor- 
mous subsidy  in  addition,  and  now  the  scene  of  an 
internal  conflict  the  end  of  which  no  one  could 
foresee. 

While  I  was  mousing  among  the  old  records  of 
the  Paris  Observatory,  the  city  was  under  the  reign 
of  the  Commune  and  besieged  by  the  national 
forces.  The  studies  had  to  be  made  within  hear- 
ing of  the  besieging  guns  ;  and  I  could  sometimes 
go  to  a  window  and  see  flashes  of  artillery  from 
one  of  the  fortifications  to  the  south.  Nearly  every 
day  I  took  a  walk  through  the  town,  occasionally 
as  far  as  the  Arc  de  Triomphe.  The  story  of  the 
Commune  has  been  so  often  written  that  I  cannot 
hope  to  add  anything  to  it,  so  far  as  the  main 
course  of  events  is  concerned.  Looking  back  on 
a  sojourn  at  so  interesting  a  period,  one  cannot 
but  feel  that  a  golden  opportunity  to  make  obser- 
vations of  historic  value  was  lost.  The  fact  is, 
however,  that  I  was  prevented  from  making  such 
observations  not  only  by  my  complete  absorption 
in  my  work,  but  by  the  consideration  that,  being 
in  what  might  be  described  as  a  semi-official  capa- 
city, I  did  not  want  to  get  into  any  difficulty  that 


322    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

would  have  compromised  the  position  of  an  official 
visitor.  I  should  not  deem  what  we  saw  worthy  of 
special  mention,  were  it  not  that  it  materially  modi- 
fies the  impressions  commonly  given  by  writers  on 
the  history  of  the  Commune.  What  an  historian 
says  may  be  quite  true,  so  far  as  it  goes,  and  yet 
may  be  so  far  from  the  whole  truth  as  to  give  the 
reader  an  incorrect  impression  of  the  actual  course 
of  events.  The  violence  and  disease  which  prevail 
in  the  most  civilized  country  in  the  world  may  be 
described  in  such  terms  as  to  give  the  impression 
of  a  barbarous  community.  The  murder  of  the 
Archbishop  of  Paris  and  of  the  hostages  show  how 
desperate  were  the  men  who  had  seized  power,  yet 
the  acts  of  these  men  constitute  but  a  small  part  of 
the  history  of  Paris  during  that  critical  period. 

What  one  writes  at  the  time  is  free  from  the 
suspicion  that  may  attach  to  statements  not  re- 
corded till  many  years  after  the  events  to  which 
they  relate.  The  following  extract  from  a  letter 
which  I  wrote  to  a  friend,  the  day  after  my  arrival, 
may  therefore  be  taken  to  show  how  things  actu- 
ally looked  to  a  spectator :  — 

DEAR  CHARLIE,  —  Here  we  are,  on  this  slumbering 
volcano.  Perhaps  you  will  hear  of  the  burst-up  long 
before  you  get  this.  We  have  seen  historic  objects 
which  fall  not  to  the  lot  of  every  generation,  the  bar- 
ricades of  the  Paris  streets.  As  we  were  walking  out 
this  morning,  the  pavement  along  one  side  of  the  street 
was  torn  up  for  some  distance,  and  used  to  build  a  tem- 
porary fort.  Said  fort  would  be  quite  strong  against 


MEN  AND  THINGS  IN  EUROPE  323 

musketry  or  the  bayonet ;  but  with  heavy  shot  against 
it,  I  should  think  it  would  be  far  worse  than  nothing, 
for  the  flying  stones  would  kill  more  than  the  balls. 

The  streets  are  placarded  at  every  turn  with  all  sorts 
of  inflammatory  appeals,  and  general  orders  of  the  Co- 
mite  Central  or  of  the  Commune.  One  of  the  first 
things  I  saw  last  night  was  a  large  placard  beginning 
"  Citoyens  !  "  Among  the  orders  is  one  forbidding  any 
one  from  placarding  any  orders  of  the  Versailles  gov- 
ernment under  the  severest  penalties ;  and  another 
threatening  with  instant  dismissal  any  official  who  shall 
recognize  any  order  issuing  from  the  said  government. 

I  must  do  all  hands  the  justice  to  say  that  they  are 
all  very  well  behaved.  There  is  nothing  like  a  mob 
anywhere,  so  far  as  I  can  find.  I  consulted  my  map 
this  morning,  right  alongside  the  barricade  and  in  full 
view  of  the  builders,  without  being  molested,  and  wife 
and  I  walked  through  the  insurrectionary  districts  with- 
out being  troubled  or  seeing  the  slightest  symptoms  of 
disturbance.  The  stores  are  all  open,  and  every  one  seems 
to  be  buying  and  selling  as  usual.  In  all  the  cafes  I 
have  seen,  the  habitues  seem  to  be  drinking  their  wine 
just  as  coolly  as  if  they  had  nothing  unusual  on  their 
minds. 

From  this  date  to  that  of  our  departure  I  saw 
nothing  suggestive  of  violence  within  the  limited 
range  of  my  daily  walks,  which  were  mostly  within 
the  region  including  the  Arc  de  Triomphe,  the 
Hotel  de  Ville,  and  the  observatory ;  the  latter  be- 
ing about  half  a  mile  south  of  the  Luxembourg. 
The  nearest  approach  to  a  mob  that  I  ever  noticed 
was  a  drill  of  young  recruits  of  the  National  Guard, 
or  a  crowd  in  the  court  of  the  Louvre  being  ha- 


324    THE  REMINISCENCES   OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

rangued  by  an  orator.  With  due  allowance  for  the 
excitability  of  the  French  nature,  the  crowd  was 
comparatively  as  peaceable  as  that  which  we  may 
see  surrounding  a  gospel  wagon  in  one  of  our  own 
cities.  A  drill-ground  for  the  recruits  happened 
to  be  selected  opposite  our  first  lodgings,  beside 
the  gates  of  the  Luxembourg.  This  was  so  dis- 
agreeable that  we  were  glad  to  accept  an  invitation 
from  Delaunay  to  be  his  guests  at  the  observatory, 
during  the  remainder  of  our  stay.  We  had  not 
been  there  long  before  the  spacious  yard  of  the 
observatory  was  also  used  as  a  drill-ground ;  and 
yet  later,  two  or  three  men  were  given  'billets  de 
logement  upon  the  observatory ;  but  I  should  not 
have  known  of  the  latter  occurrence,  had  not  Delau- 
nay told  me.  I  believe  he  bought  the  men  off, 
much  as  one  pays  an  organ-grinder  to  move  on. 
In  one  of  our  walks  we  entered  the  barricade  around 
the  Hotel  de  Ville,  and  were  beginning  to  make  a 
close  examination  of  a  mitrailleuse,  when  a  soldier 
(beg  his  pardon,  un  citoyen  membre  de  la  Garde 
Nationals)  warned  us  away  from  the  weapon.  The 
densest  crowd  of  Communists  was  along  the  Rue 
de  Rivoli  arid  in  the  region  of  the  Colonne  Yen- 
dome,  where  some  of  the  principal  barricades  were 
being  erected.  But  even  here,  not  only  were  the 
stores  open  as  usual,  but  the  military  were  doing 
their  work  in  the  midst  of  piles  of  trinkets  exposed 
for  sale  on  the  pavement  by  the  shop  women.  The 
order  to  destroy  the  Column  was  issued  before  we 
left,  but  not  executed  until  later.  I  have  no  rea- 


MEN  AND  THINGS  IN  EUROPE  325 

son  to  suppose  that  the  shopwomen  were  any  more 
concerned  while  the  Column  was  being  undermined 
than  they  were  before.  To  complete  the  picture, 
not  a  policeman  did  we  see  in  Paris  ;  in  fact,  I  was 
told  that  one  of  the  first  acts  of  the  Commune  had 
been  to  drive  the  police  away,  so  that  not  one 
dared  to  show  himself. 

An  interesting  feature  of  the  sad  spectacle  was 
the  stream  of  proclamations  poured  forth  by  the 
Communist  authorities.  They  comprised  not  only 
decrees,  but  sensational  stories  of  victories  over  the 
Versailles  troops,  denunciations  of  the  Versailles 
government,  and  even  elaborate  legal  arguments, 
including  a  not  intemperate  discussion  of  the  ethi- 
cal question  whether  citizens  who  were  not  adher- 
ents of  the  Commune  should  be  entitled  to  the 
right  of  suffrage.  The  conclusion  was  that  they 
should  not.  The  lack  of  humor  on  the  part  of  the 
authorities  was  shown  by  their  commencing  one  of 
a  rapid  succession  of  battle  stories  with  the  words, 
"  Citoyens  !  Vous  avez  soif  de  la  verite  !  "  The 
most  amusing  decree  I  noticed  ran  thus :  — 

"  Article  I.  All  conscription  is  abolished. 

"  Article  II.  No  troops  shall  hereafter  be  allowed 
in  Paris,  except  the  National  Guard. 

"  Article  III.  Every  citizen  is  a  member  of  the 
National  Guard." 

We  were  in  daily  expectation  and  hope  of  the 
capture  of  the  city,  little  imagining  by  what  scenes 
it  would  be  accompanied.  It  did  not  seem  to  my 
unmilitary  eye  that  two  or  three  batteries  of  artil- 


326    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

lery  could  have  any  trouble  in  demolishing  all  the 
defenses,  since  a  wall  of  paving-stones,  four  or  five 
feet  high,  could  hardly  resist  solid  shot,  or  prove 
anything  but  a  source  of  destruction  to  those  be- 
hind it  if  attacked  by  artillery.  But  the  capture 
was  not  so  easy  a  matter  as  I  had  supposed. 

We  took  leave  of  our  friend  and  host  on  May  5, 
three  weeks  before  the  final  catastrophe,  of  which 
he  wrote  me  a  graphic  description.  As  the  barri- 
cades were  stormed  by  MacMahon,  the  Communist 
line  of  retreat  was  through  the  region  of  the  obser- 
vatory. The  walls  of  the  building  and  of  the  yard 
were  so  massive  that  the  place  was  occupied  as  a 
fort  by  the  retreating  forces,  so  that  the  situation 
of  the  few  non-combatants  who  remained  was  ex- 
tremely critical.  They  were  exposed  to  the  fire 
of  their  friends,  the  national  troops,  from  without, 
while  enraged  men  were  threatening  their  lives 
within.  So  hot  was  the  fusillade  that,  going  into 
the  great  dome  after  the  battle,  the  astronomer 
could  imagine  all  the  constellations  of  the  sky  de- 
picted by  the  bullet-holes.  When  retreat  became 
inevitable,  the  Communists  tried  to  set  the  building 
on  fire,  but  did  not  succeed.  Then,  in  their  des- 
peration, arrangements  were  made  for  blowing  it 
up  ;  but  the  most  violent  man  among  them  was 
killed  by  a  providential  bullet,  as  he  was  on  the 
point  of  doing  his  work.  The  remainder  fled,  the 
place  was  speedily  occupied  by  the  national  troops, 
and  the  observatory  with  its  precious  contents  was 
saved. 


MEN  AND  THINGS  IN  EUROPE  327 

The  Academy  of  Sciences  had  met  regularly 
through  the  entire  Prussian  siege.  The  legal  quo- 
rum being  three,  this  did  not  imply  a  large  attend- 
ance. The  reason  humorously  assigned  for  this 
number  was  that,  on  opening  a  session,  the  presid- 
ing officer  must  say,  Messieurs,  la  seance  est  ou- 
verte,  and  he  cannot  say  Messieurs  unless  there 
are  at  least  two  to  address.  At  the  time  of  my 
visit  a  score  of  members  were  in  the  city.  Among 
them  were  Elie  de  Beaumont,  the  geologist ;  Milne- 
Edwards,  the  zoologist ;  and  Chevreul,  the  chemist. 
I  was  surprised  to  learn  that  the  latter  was  in  his 
eighty-fifth  year ;  he  seemed  a  man  of  seventy  or 
less,  mentally  and  physically.  Yet  we  little  thought 
that  he  would  be  the  longest-lived  man  of  equal 
eminence  that  our  age  has  known.  When  he  died, 
in  1889,  he  was  nearly  one  hundred  and  three  years 
old.  Born  in  1786,  he  had  lived  through  the  whole 
French  Revolution,  and  was  seven  years  old  at  the 
time  of  the  Terror.  His  scientific  activity,  from 
beginning  to  end,  extended  over  some  eighty  years. 
When  I  saw  him,  he  was  still  very  indignant  at  a 
bombardment  of  the  Jardin  des  Plantes  by  the 
German  besiegers.  He  had  made  a  formal  state- 
ment of  this  outrage  to  the  Academy  of  Sciences, 
in  order  that  posterity  might  know  what  kind  of 
men  were  besieging  Paris.  I  suggested  that  the 
shells  might  have  fallen  in  the  place  by  accident ; 
but  he  maintained  that  it  was  not  the  case,  and  that 
the  bombardment  was  intentional. 

The  most  execrated  man  in  the  scientific  circle 


328    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

at  this  time  was  Leverrier.  He  had  left  Paris  be- 
fore the  Prussian  siege  began,  and  had  not  returned. 
Delaunay  assured  me  that  this  was  a  wise  precau- 
tion on  his  part ;  for  had  he  ventured  into  the  city 
he  would  have  been  mobbed,  or  the  Communists 
would  have  killed  him  as  soon  as  caught.  Just  why 
the  mob  should  have  been  so  incensed  against  one 
whose  life  was  spent  in  the  serenest  fields  of  astro- 
nomical science  was  not  fully  explained.  The  fact 
that  he  had  been  a  senator,  and  was  politically  ob- 
noxious, was  looked  on  as  an  all-sufficient  indict- 
ment. Even  members  of  the  Academy  could  not 
suppress  their  detestation  of  him.  Their  language 
seemed  not  to  have  words  that  would  fully  express 
their  sense  of  his  despicable  meanness,  not  to  say 
turpitude. 

Four  years  later  I  was  again  in  Paris,  and  at- 
tended a  meeting  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences. 
In  the  course  of  the  session  a  rustle  of  attention 
spread  over  the  room,  as  all  eyes  were  turned  upon 
a  member  who  was  entering  rather  late.  Looking 
toward  the  door,  I  saw  a  man  of  sixty,  a  decided 
blond,  with  light  chestnut  hair  turning  gray,  slen- 
der form,  shaven  face,  rather  pale  and  thin,  but 
very  attractive,  and  extremely  intellectual  features. 
As  he  passed  to  his  seat  hands  were  stretched  out 
on  all  sides  to  greet  him,  and  not  until  he  sat  down 
did  the  bustle  caused  by  his  entrance  subside.  He 
was  evidently  a  notable. 

"  Who  is  that  ?  "  I  said  to  my  neighbor. 

"  Leverrier." 


MEN  AND  THINGS  IN  EUROPE  329 

Delaunay  was  one  of  the  most  kindly  and  at- 
tractive men  I  ever  met.  We  spent  our  evenings 
walking  in  the  grounds  of  the  observatory,  discuss- 
ing French  science  in  all  its  aspects.  His  investi- 
gation of  the  moon's  motion  is  one  of  the  most 
extraordinary  pieces  of  mathematical  work  ever 
turned  out  by  a  single  person.  It  fills  two  quarto 
volumes,  and  the  reader  who  attempts  to  go 
through  any  part  of  the  calculations  will  wonder 
how  one  man  could  do  the  work  in  a  lifetime.  His 
habit  was  to  commence  early  in  the  morning,  and 
work  with  but  little  interruption  until  noon.  He 
never  worked  in  the  evening,  and  generally  retired 
at  nine.  I  felt  some  qualms  of  conscience  at  the 
frequency  with  which  I  kept  him  up  till  nearly  ten. 
I  found  it  hopeless  to  expect  that  he  would  ever 
visit  America,  because  he  assured  me  that  he  did 
not  dare  to  venture  on  the  ocean.  The  only  voy- 
age he  had  ever  made  was  across  the  Channel,  to 
receive  the  gold  medal  of  the  Royal  Astronomi- 
cal Society  for  his  work.  Two  of  his  relatives  — 
his  father  and,  I  believe,  his  brother  —  had  been 
drowned,  and  this  fact  gave  him  a  horror  of  the 
water.  He  seemed  to  feel  somewhat  like  the 
clients  of  the  astrologists,  who,  having  been  told 
from  what  agencies  they  were  to  die,  took  every 
precaution  to  avoid  them.  I  remember,  as  a  boy, 
reading  a  history  of  astrology,  in  which  a  great 
many  cases  of  this  sort  were  described  ;  the  peculiar- 
ity being  that  the  very  measures  which  the  victim 
took  to  avoid  the  decree  of  fate  became  the  engines 


330    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

that  executed  it.  The  death  of  Delaunay  was  not 
exactly  a  case  of  this  kind,  yet  it  could  not  but  bring 
it  to  mind.  He  was  at  Cherbourg  in  the  autumn  of 
1872.  As  he  was  walking  on  the  beach  with  a 
relative,  a  couple  of  boatmen  invited  them  to  take  a 
sail.  Through  what  inducement  Delaunay  was  led 
to  forget  his  fears  will  never  be  known.  All  we 
know  is  that  he  and  his  friend  entered  the  boat, 
that  it  was  struck  by  a  sudden  squall  when  at  some 
distance  from  the  land,  and  that  the  whole  party 
were  drowned. 

There  was  no  opposition  to  the  reappointment  of 
Leverrier  to  his  old  place.  In  fact,  at  the  time  of 
my  visit,  Delaunay  said  that  President  Thiers  was 
on  terms  of  intimate  friendship  with  the  former 
director,  and  he  thought  it  not  at  all  unlikely  that 
the  latter  would  succeed  in  being  restored.  He 
kept  the  position  with  general  approval  till  his 
death  in  1877. 

The  only  occasion  on  which  I  met  Leverrier  was 
after  the  incident  I  have  mentioned,  in  the  Acad- 
emy of  Sciences.  I  had  been  told  that  he  was 
incensed  against  me  on  account  of  an  unfortunate 
remark  I  had  made  in  speaking  of  his  work  which 
led  to  the  discovery  of  Neptune.  I  had  heard  this 
in  Germany  as  well  as  in  France,  yet  the  matter 
was  so  insignificant  that  I  could  hardly  conceive  of 
a  man  of  philosophic  mind  taking  any  notice  of  it. 
I  determined  to  meet  him,  as  I  had  met  Hansen, 
with  entire  unconsciousness  of  offense.  So  I  called 
on  him  at  the  observatory,  and  was  received  with 


MEN  AND  THINGS  IN  EUROPE  331 

courtesy,  but  no  particular  warmth.  I  suggested 
to  him  that  now,  as  he  had  nearly  completed  his 
work  on  the  tables  of  the  planets,  the  question  of 
the  moon's  motion  would  be  the  next  object  worthy 
of  his  attention.  He  replied  that  it  was  too  large 
a  subject  for  him  to  take  up. 

To  Leverrier  belongs  the  credit  of  having  been 
the  real  organizer  of  the  Paris  Observatory.  His 
work  there  was  not  dissimilar  to  that  of  Airy  at 
Greenwich ;  but  he  had  a  much  more  difficult  task 
before  him,  and  was  less  fitted  to  grapple  with 
it.  When  founded  by  Louis  XIV.  the  establish- 
ment was  simply  a  place  where  astronomers  of  the 
Academy  of  Sciences  could  go  to  make  their  ob- 
servations. There  was  no  titular  director,  every 
man  working  on  his  own  account  and  in  his  own 
way.  Cassini,  an  Italian  by  birth,  was  the  best 
known  of  the  astronomers,  and,  in  consequence, 
posterity  has  very  generally  supposed  he  was  the 
director.  That  he  failed  to  secure  that  honor  was 
not  from  any  want  of  astuteness.  It  is  related  that 
the  monarch  once  visited  the  observatory  to  see  a 
newly  discovered  comet  through  the  telescope.  He 
inquired  in  what  direction  the  comet  was  going  to 
move.  This  was  a  question  it  was  impossible  to  an- 
swer at  the  moment,  because  both  observations  and 
computations  would  be  necessary  before  the  orbit 
could  be  worked  out.  But  Cassini  reflected  that 
the  king  would  not  look  at  the  comet  again,  and 
would  very  soon  forget  what  was  told  him;  so  he 
described  its  future  path  in  the  heavens  quite  at 


332    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

random,  with  entire  confidence  that  any  deviation 
of  the  actual  motion  from  his  prediction  would 
never  be  noted  by  his  royal  patron. 

One  of  the  results  of  this  lack  of  organization 
has  been  that  the  Paris  Observatory  does  not  hold 
an  historic  rank  correspondent  to  the  magnificence 
of  the  establishment.  The  go-as-you-please  system 
works  no  better  in  a  national  observatory  than  it 
would  in  a  business  institution.  Up  to  the  end  of 
the  last  century,  the  observations  made  there  were 
too  irregular  to  be  of  any  special  importance.  To 
remedy  this  state  of  things,  Arago  was  appointed 
director  early  in  the  present  century  ;  but  he  was 
more  eminent  in  experimental  physics  than  in  as- 
tronomy, and  had  no  great  astronomical  problem 
to  solve.  The  result  was  that  while  he  did  much 
to  promote  the  reputation  of  the  observatory  in 
the  direction  of  physical  investigation,  he  did  not 
organize  any  well-planned  system  of  regular  astro- 
nomical work. 

When  Leverrier  succeeded  Arago,  in  1853,  he 
had  an  extremely  difficult  problem  before  him.  By 
a  custom  extending  through  two  centuries,  each 
astronomer  was  to  a  large  extent  the  master  of  his 
own  work.  Leverrier  undertook  to  change  all  this 
in  a  twinkling,  and,  if  reports  are  true,  without 
much  regard  to  the  feelings  of  the  astronomers. 
Those  who  refused  to  fall  into  line  either  resigned 
or  were  driven  away,  and  their  places  were  filled 
with  men  willing  to  work  under  the  direction  of 
their  chief.  Yet  his  methods  were  not  up  to  the 


MEN  AND  THINGS  IN  EUROPE  333 

times ;  and  the  work  of  the  Paris  Observatory,  so 
far  as  observations  of  precision  go,  falls  markedly 
behind  that  of  Greenwich  and  Pulkova. 

In  recent  times  the  institution  has  been  marked 
by  an  energy  and  a  progressiveness  that  go  far  to 
atone  for  its  former  deficiencies.  The  successors 
of  Leverrier  have  known  where  to  draw  the  line 
between  routine,  on  the  one  side,  and  initiative  on 
the  part  of  the  assistants,  on  the  other.  Probably 
no  other  observatory  in  the  world  has  so  many  able 
and  well-trained  young  men,  who  work  partly  on 
their  own  account,  and  partly  in  a  regular  routine. 
In  the  direction  of  physical  astronomy  the  observa- 
tory is  especially  active,  and  it  may  be  expected  in 
the  future  to  justify  its  historic  reputation. 


XII 

THE  OLD  AND  THE  NEW  WASHINGTON 

A  FEW  features  of  Washington  as  it  appeared  dur- 
ing the  civil  war  are  indelibly  fixed  in  my  memory. 
An  endless  train  of  army  wagons  ploughed  its 
streets  with  their  heavy  wheels.  Almost  the  entire 
southwestern  region,  between  the  War  Department 
and  the  Potomac,  extending  west  on  the  river  to 
the  neighborhood  of  the  observatory,  was  occupied 
by  the  Quartermaster's  and  Subsistence  Depart- 
ments for  storehouses.  Among  these  the  astrono- 
mers had  to  walk  by  day  and  night,  in  going  to  and 
from  their  work.  After  a  rain,  especially  during 
winter  and  spring,  some  of  the  streets  were  much 
like  shallow  canals.  Under  the  attrition  of  the 
iron-bound  wheels  the  water  and  clay  were  ground 
into  mud,  which  was  at  first  almost  liquid.  It  grew 
thicker  as  it  dried  up,  until  perhaps  another  rain- 
storm reduced  it  once  more  to  a  liquid  condition. 
In  trying  first  one  street  and  then  another  to  see 
which  offered  the  fewest  obstacles  to  his  passage, 
the  wayfarer  was  reminded  of  the  assurance  given 
by  a  bright  boy  to  a  traveler  who  wanted  to  know 
the  best  road  to  a  certain  place  :  "  Whichever  road 
you  take,  before  you  get  halfway  there  you  '11  wish 
you  had  taken  t'  other."  By  night  swarms  of  rats, 


THE   OLD  AND  THE  NEW  WASHINGTON       335 

of  a  size  proportional  to  their  ample  food  supply, 
disputed  the  right  of  way  with  the  pedestrian. 

Across  the  Potomac,  Arlington  Heights  were 
whitened  by  the  tents  of  soldiers,  from  which  the 
discharges  of  artillery  or  the  sound  of  the  fife  and 
drum  became  so  familiar  that  the  dweller  almost 
ceased  to  notice  it.  The  city  was  defended  by  a  row 
of  earthworks,  generally  not  far  inside  the  boundary 
line  of  the  District  of  Columbia,  say  five  or  six  miles 
from  the  central  portions  of  the  city.  One  of  the 
circumstances  connected  with  their  plans  strikingly 
illustrates  the  exactness  which  the  science  or  art  of 
military  engineering  had  reached.  Of  course  the 
erection  of  fortifications  was  one  of  the  first  tasks 
to  be  undertaken  by  the  War  Department.  Plans 
showing  the  proposed  location  and  arrangements  of 
the  several  forts  were  drawn  up  by  a  board  of  army 
engineers,  at  whose  head,  then  or  afterward,  stood 
General  John  G.  Barnard.  When  the  plans  were 
complete,  it  was  thought  advisable  to  test  them  by 
calling  in  the  advice  of  Professor  D.  H.  Mahan  of 
the  Military  Academy  at  West  Point.  He  came  to 
Washington,  made  a  careful  study  of  the  maps  and 
plans,  and  was  then  driven  around  the  region  of  the 
lines  to  be  defended  to  supplement  his  knowledge 
by  personal  inspection.  Then  he  laid  down  his  ideas 
as  to  the  location  of  the  forts.  There  were  but  two 
variations  from  the  plans  proposed  by  the  Board  of 
Engineers,  and  these  were  not  of  fundamental  im- 
portance. 

Willard's  Hotel,  then  the  only  considerable  one 


336    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

in  the  neighborhood  of  the  executive  offices,  was  a 
sort  of  headquarters  for  arriving  army  officers,  as 
well  as  for  the  thousands  of  civilians  who  had  busi- 
ness with  the  government,  and  for  gossip  generally. 
Inside  its  crowded  entrance  one  could  hear  every 
sort  of  story,  of  victory  or  disaster,  generally  the 
latter,  though  very  little  truth  was  ever  to  be 
gleaned. 

The  newsboy  flourished.  He  was  a  bright  fellow 
too,  and  may  have  developed  into  a  man  of  business, 
a  reporter,  or  even  an  editor.  "  Another  great  bat- 
tle ! "  was  his  constant  cry.  But  the  purchaser  of 
his  paper  would  commonly  read  of  nothing  but  a 
skirmish  or  some  fresh  account  of  a  battle  fought 
several  days  before  —  perhaps  not  even  this.  On 
one  occasion  an  officer  in  uniform,  finding  nothing 
in  his  paper  to  justify  the  cry,  turned  upon  the  boy 
with  the  remark,  — 

"  Look  here,  boy,  I  don't  see  any  battle  here." 

"  No,"  was  the  reply,  "  nor  you  won't  see  one  as 
long  as  you  hang  around  Washington.  If  you 
want  to  see  a  battle  you  must  go  to  the  front." 

The  officer  thought  it  unprofitable  to  continue 
the  conversation,  and  beat  a  retreat  amid  the  smiles 
of  the  bystanders.  This  story,  I  may  remark,  is 
quite  authentic,  which  is  more  than  one  can  say  of 
the  report  that  a  stick  thrown  by  a  boy  at  a  dog 
in  front  of  Willard's  Hotel  struck  twelve  brigadier 
generals  during  its  flight. 

The  presiding  genius  of  the  whole  was  Mr.  Edwin 
M.  Stanton,  Secretary  of  War.  Before  the  actual 


THE  OLD  AND  THE  NEW  WASHINGTON      337 

outbreak  of  the  conflict  he  had  been,  I  believe,  at 
least  a  Democrat,  and,  perhaps,  to  a  certain  extent, 
a  Southern  sympathizer  so  far  as  the  slavery  ques- 
tion was  concerned.  But  when  it  came  to  blows, 
he  espoused  the  side  of  the  Union,  and  after  being 
made  Secretary  of  War  he  conducted  military  oper- 
ations with  a  tireless  energy,  which  made  him  seem 
the  impersonation  of  the  god  of  war.  Ordinarily 
his  character  seemed  almost  savage  when  he  was 
dealing  with  military  matters.  He  had  no  mercy 
on  inefficiency  or  lukewarmness.  But  his  sympa- 
thetic attention,  when  a  case  called  for  it,  is  strik- 
ingly shown  in  the  following  letter,  of  which  I 
became  possessed  by  mere  accident.  At  the  begin- 
ning of  the  war  Mr.  Charles  Ellet,  an  eminent  engi- 
neer, then  resident  near  Washington,  tendered  his 
services  to  the  government,  and  equipped  a  fleet  of 
small  river  steamers  on  the  Mississippi  under  the  War 
Department.  In  the  battle  of  June  6,  1862,  he  re- 
ceived a  wound  from  which  he  died  some  two  weeks 
later.  His  widow  sold  or  leased  his  house  on  George- 
town Heights,  and  I  boarded  in  it  shortly  afterward. 
Amongst  some  loose  rubbish  and  old  papers  lying 
around  in  one  of  the  rooms  I  picked  up  the  letter 
which  follows. 

WAR  DEPARTMENT, 
WASHINGTON  CITY,  D.  C.,  June  9,  1862. 

DEAR  MADAM,  —  I  understand  from  Mr.  Ellet's  dis- 
patch to  you  that  as  he  will  be  unfit  for  duty  for  some 
time  it  will  be  agreeable  to  him  for  you  to  visit  him,  tra- 
veling slowly  so  as  not  to  expose  your  own  health. 

With  this  view  I  will  afford  you  every  facility  within 


338    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

the  control  of  the  Department,  by  way  of  Pittsburg  and 
Cincinnati  to  Cairo,  where  he  will  probably  meet  you. 
Yours  truly, 

EDWIN  M.  STANTON, 

Secretary  of  War. 

The  interesting  feature  of  this  letter  is  that  it 
Is  entirely  in  the  writer's  autograph,  and  bears  no 
mark  of  having  been  press  copied.  I  infer  that  it 
was  written  out  of  office  hours,  after  all  the  clerks 
had  left  the  Department,  perhaps  late  at  night, 
while  the  secretary  was  taking  advantage  of  the 
stillness  of  the  hour  to  examine  papers  and  plans. 

Only  once  did  I  come  into  personal  contact  with 
Mr.  Stanton.  A  portrait  of  Ferdinand  R.  Hassler, 
first  superintendent  of  the  Coast  Survey,  had  been 
painted  about  1840  by  Captain  Williams  of  the 
Corps  of  Engineers,  U.  S.  A.,  a  son-in-law  of  Mr. 
G.  W.  P.  Custis,  and  therefore  a  brother-in-law  of 
General  Lee.  The  picture  at  the  Arlington  house 
was  given  to  Mrs.  Colonel  Abert,  who  loaned  it  to 
Mr.  Custis.  When  the  civil  war  began  she  verbally 
donated  it  to  my  wife,  who  was  Mr.  Hassler's  grand- 
daughter, and  was  therefore  considered  the  most 
appropriate  depositary  of  it,  asking  her  to  get  it  if 
she  could.  But  before  she  got  actual  possession 
of  it,  the  Arlington  house  was  occupied  by  our 
troops  and  Mr.  Stanton  ordered  the  picture  to  be 
presented  to  Professor  Agassiz  for  the  National 
Academy  of  Sciences.  On  hearing  of  this,  I  ven- 
tured to  mention  the  matter  to  Mr.  Stanton,  with 
a  brief  statement  of  our  claims  upon  the  picture. 


THE  OLD   AND  THE  NEW  WASHINGTON      339 

"  Sir/'  said  he,  "  that  picture  was  found  in  the 
house  of  a  rebel  in  arms  [General  Eobert  E.  Lee], 
and  was  justly  a  prize  of  war.  I  therefore  made 
what  I  considered  the  most  appropriate  disposition 
of  it,  by  presenting  it  to  the  National  Academy  of 
Sciences." 

The  expression  "  house  of  a  rebel  in  arms  "  was 
uttered  with  such  emphasis  that  I  almost  felt  like 
one  under  suspicion  of  relations  with  the  enemy 
in  pretending  to  claim  the  object  in  question.  It 
was  clearly  useless  to  pursue  the  matter  any  fur- 
ther at  that  time.  Some  years  later,  when  the 
laws  were  no  longer  silent,  the  National  Academy 
decided  that  whoever  might  be  the  legal  owner 
of  the  picture,  the  Academy  could  have  no  claim 
upon  it,  and  therefore  suffered  it  to  pass  into  the 
possession  of  the  only  claimant. 

Among  the  notable  episodes  of  the  civil  war  was 
the  so-called  raid  of  the  Confederate  general,  Early, 
in  July,  1864.  He  had  entered  Maryland  and  de- 
feated General  Lew  Wallace.  This  left  nothing 
but  the  well-designed  earthworks  around  Washing- 
ton between  his  army  and  our  capital.  Some  have 
thought  that,  had  he  immediately  made  a  rapid 
dash,  the  city  might  have  fallen  into  his  hands. 

All  in  the  service  of  the  War  and  Navy  depart- 
ments who  were  supposed  capable  of  rendering 
efficient  help,  were  ordered  out  to  take  part  in  the 
defense  of  the  city,  among  them  the  younger  pro- 
fessors of  the  observatory.  By  order  of  Captain 
Gilliss  I  became  a  member  of  a  naval  brigade, 


340    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

organized  in  the  most  hurried  manner  by  Admiral 
Goldsborough,  and  including  in  it  several  officers 
of  high  and  low  rank.  The  rank  and  file  was 
formed  of  the  workmen  in  the  Navy  Yard,  most 
of  whom  were  said  to  have  seen  military  service  of 
one  kind  or  another.  The  brigade  formed  at  the 
Navy  Yard  about  the  middle  of  the  afternoon,  and 
was  ordered  to  march  out  to  Fort  Lincoln,  a  strong 
earthwork  built  on  a  prominent  hill,  half  a  mile 
southwest  of  the  station  now  known  as  Eives. 
The  Reform  School  of  the  District  of  Columbia 
now  stands  on  the  site  of  the  fort.  The  position 
certainly  looked  very  strong.  On  the  right  the 
fort  was  flanked  by  a  deep  intrenchment  running 
along  the  brow  of  the  hill,  and  the  whole  line 
would  include  in  the  sweep  of  its  fire  the  region 
which  an  army  would  have  to  cross  in  order  to 
enter  the  city.  The  naval  brigade  occupied  the 
trench,  while  the  army  force,  which  seemed  very 
small  in  numbers,  manned  the  front. 

I  was  not  assigned  to  any  particular  duty,  and 
simply  walked  round  the  place  in  readiness  to  act 
whenever  called  upon.  I  supposed  the  first  thing 
to  be  done  was  to  have  the  men  in  the  trench 
go  through  some  sort  of  drill,  in  order  to  assure 
their  directing  the  most  effective  fire  on  the  en- 
emy should  he  appear.  The  trench  was  perhaps 
six  feet  deep ;  along  its  bottom  ran  a  little  ledge 
on  which  the  men  had  to  step  in  order  to  deliver 
their  fire,  stepping  back  into  the  lower  depth  to 
load  again.  Along  the  edge  was  a  sort  of  rail 


THE  OLD  AND  THE  NEW  WASHINGTON      341 

fence,  the  bottom  rail  of  which  rested  on  the 
ground.  In  order  to  fire  on  an  enemy  coming 
up  the  hill,  it  would  be  necessary  to  rest  the  weapon 
on  this  bottom  rail.  It  was  quite  evident  to  me 
that  a  man  not  above  the  usual  height,  standing 
on  the  ledge,  would  have  to  stand  on  tiptoe  in 
order  to  get  the  muzzle  of  his  gun  properly  directed 
down  the  slope.  If  he  were  at  all  flurried  he  would 
be  likely  to  fire  over  the  head  of  the  enemy.  I 
called  attention  to  this  state  of  things,  but  did  not 
seem  to  make  any  impression  on  the  officers,  who 
replied  that  the  men  had  seen  service  and  knew 
what  to  do. 

We  bivouacked  that  night,  and  remained  all  the 
next  day  and  the  night  following  awaiting  the 
attack  of  the  enemy,  who  was  supposed  to  be  ap- 
proaching Fort  Stevens  on  the  Seventh  Street  road. 
At  the  critical  moment,  General  H.  G.  Wright 
arrived  from  Fort  Monroe  with  his  army  corps. 
He  and  General  A.  McD.  McCook  both  took  their 
stations  at  Fort  Lincoln,  which  it  was  supposed 
would  be  the  point  of  attack.  A  quarter  or  half 
a  mile  down  the  hill  was  the  mansion  of  the  Rives 
family,  which  a  passenger  on  the  Baltimore  and 
Ohio  Railway  can  readily  see  at  the  station  of  that 
name.  A  squad  of  men  was  detailed  to  go  to  this 
house  and  destroy  it,  in  case  the  enemy  should 
appear.  The  attack  was  expected  at  daybreak,  but 
General  Early,  doubtless  hearing  of  the  arrival  of  re- 
inforcements, abandoned  any  project  he  might  have 
entertained  and  had  beat  a  retreat  the  day  before. 


342    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

Whether  the  supposition  that  he  could  have  taken 
the  city  with  great  celerity  has  any  foundation,  I 
cannot  say ;  I  should  certainly  greatly  doubt  it, 
remembering  the  large  loss  of  life  generally  suffered 
during  the  civil  war  by  troops  trying  to  storm  in- 
trenchments  or  defenses  of  any  sort,  even  with 
greatly  superior  force. 

I  was  surprised  to  find  how  quickly  one  could 
acquire  the  stolidity  of  the  soldier.  During  the 
march  from  the  Navy  Yard  to  the  fort  I  felt  ex- 
tremely depressed,  as  one  can  well  imagine,  in  view 
of  the  suddenness  with  which  I  had  to  take  leave 
of  my  family  and  the  uncertainty  of  the  situation, 
as  well  as  its  extreme  gravity.  But  this  depression 
wore  off  the  next  day,  and  I  do  not  think  I  ever  had 
a  sounder  night's  sleep  in  my  life  than  when  I  lay 
down  on  the  grass,  with  only  a  blanket  between 
myself  and  the  sky,  with  the  expectation  of  being 
awakened  by  the  rattle  of  musketry  at  daybreak. 

I  remember  well  how  kindly  we  were  treated  by 
the  army.  The  acquaintance  of  Generals  Wright 
and  Me  Cook,  made  under  such  circumstances,  was 
productive  of  a  feeling  which  has  never  worn  off. 
It  has  always  been  a  matter  of  sorrow  to  me  that 
the  Washington  of  to-day  does  not  show  a  more 
lively  consciousness  of  what  it  owes  to  these  men. 

One  of  the  entertainments  of  Washington  dur- 
ing the  early  years  of  the  civil  war  was  offered 
by  President  Lincoln's  public  receptions.  We  used 
to  go  there  simply  to  see  the  people  and  the  cos- 


THE  OLD  AND  THE  NEW  WASHINGTON      343 

tumes,  the  latter  being  of  a  variety  which  I  do  not 
think  was  ever  known  on  such  occasions  before  or 
since.  Well-dressed  and  refined  ladies  and  gentle- 
men, men  in  their  working  clothes,  women  arrayed 
in  costumes  fanciful  in  cut  and  brilliant  in  color, 
mixed  together  in  a  way  that  suggested  a  con- 
vention of  the  human  race.  Just  where  the  oddly 
dressed  people  came  from,  or  what  notion  took 
them  at  this  particular  time  to  don  an  attire  like 
that  of  a  fancy-dress  ball,  no  one  seemed  to  know. 
Among  the  never-to-be-forgotten  scenes  was  that 
following  the  news  of  the  fall  of  Richmond.  If  I 
described  it  from  memory,  a  question  would  per- 
haps arise  in  the  reader's  mind  as  to  how  much 
fancy  might  have  added  to  the  picture  in  the 
course  of  nearly  forty  years.  I  shall  therefore 
quote  a  letter  written  to  Chauncey  Wright  imme- 
diately afterwards,  of  which  I  preserved  a  press 
copy. 

OBSERVATORY,  April  7, 1865. 

DEAR  WRIGHT,  —  Yours  of  the  5th  just  received.  I 
heartily  reciprocate  your  congratulations  on  the  fall  of 
Richmond  and  the  prospective  disappearance  of  the 
S.  C.  alias  C.  S. 

You  ought  to  have  been  here  Monday.  The  obser- 
vatory is  half  a  mile  to  a  mile  from  the  thickly  settled 
part  of  the  city.  At  11  A.  M.  we  were  put  upon  the  qui 
vive  by  an  unprecedented  commotion  in  the  city.  From 
the  barracks  near  us  rose  a  continuous  stream  of  cheers, 
and  in  the  city  was  a  hubbub  such  as  we  had  never  be- 
fore heard.  We  thought  it  must  be  Petersburg  or  Rich- 
mond, but  hardly  dared  to  hope  which.  Miss  Gilliss 


344    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

sent  us  word  that  it  was  really  Richmond.  I  went 
down  to  the  city.  All  the  bedlams  in  creation  broken 
loose  could  not  have  made  such  a  scene.  The  stores 
were  half  closed,  the  clerks  given  a  holiday,  the  streets 
crowded,  every  other  man  drunk,  and  drums  were  beat- 
ing and  men  shouting  and  flags  waving  in  every  direc- 
tion. I  never  felt  prouder  of  my  country  than  then,  as 
I  compared  our  present  position  with  our  position  in  the 
numerous  dark  days  of  the  contest,  and  was  almost 
ashamed  to  think  that  I  had  ever  said  that  any  act  of  the 
government  was  not  the  best  possible. 

Not  many  days  after  this  outburst,  the  city  was 
pervaded  by  an  equally  intense  and  yet  deeper  feel- 
ing of  an  opposite  kind.  Probably  no  event  in  its 
history  caused  such  a  wave  of  sadness  and  sym- 
pathy as  the  assassination  of  President  Lincoln, 
especially  during  the  few  days  while  bands  of  men 
were  scouring  the  country  in  search  of  the  assassin. 
One  could  not  walk  the  streets  without  seeing  evi- 
dence of  tbis  at  every  turn.  Tbe  slightest  bustle, 
perbaps  even  tbe  running  away  of  a  dog,  caused  a 
tremor. 

I  paid  one  short  visit  to  tbe  military  court  which 
was  trying  the  conspirators.  Tbe  court  itself  was 
listening  witb  silence  and  gravity  to  tbe  reading  of 
the  testimony  taken  on  tbe  day  previous.  General 
Wallace  produced  on  tbe  spectators  an  impression 
a  little  different  from  tbe  other  members,  by  exhib- 
iting an  artistic  propensity,  which  subsequently 
took  a  different  direction  in  "  Ben  Hur."  The  most 
impressive  sight  was  that  of  the  conspirators,  all 
heavily  manacled  ;  even  Mrs.  Surratt,  wbo  kept  her 


THE   OLD   AND  THE  NEW  WASHINGTON       345 

irons  partly  concealed  in  the  folds  of  her  gown. 
Payne,  the  would-be  assassin  of  Seward,  was  a 
powerful-looking  man,  with  a  face  that  showed  him 
ready  for  anything ;  but  the  other  two  conspirators 
were  such  simple-minded,  mild-looking  youths,  that 
it  seemed  hardly  possible  they  could  have  been  ac- 
tive agents  in  such  a  crime,  or  capable  of  any  pro- 
ceeding requiring  physical  or  mental  force. 

The  impression  which  I  gained  at  the  time  from 
the  evidence  and  all  the  circumstances,  was  that  the 
purpose  of  the  original  plot  was  not  the  assassina- 
tion of  the  President,  but  his  abduction  and  trans- 
portation to  Richmond  or  some  other  point  within 
the  Confederate  lines.  While  Booth  himself  may 
have  meditated  assassination  from  the  beginning, 
it  does  not  seem  likely  that  he  made  this  purpose 
known  to  his  fellows  until  they  were  ready  to  act. 
Then  Payne  alone  had  the  courage  to  attempt  the 
execution  of  the  programme. 

Two  facts  show  that  a  military  court,  sitting 
under  such  circumstances,  must  not  be  expected  to 
reach  exactly  the  verdict  that  a  jury  would  after 
the  public  excitement  had  died  away.  Among  the 
prisoners  was  the  man  whose  business  it  was  to 
assist  in  arranging  the  scenery  on  the  stage  of  the 
theatre  where  the  assassination  occurred.  The  only 
evidence  against  him  was  that  he  had  not  taken 
advantage  of  his  opportunity  to  arrest  Booth  as 
the  latter  was  leaving,  and  for  this  he  was  sen- 
tenced to  twenty  years  penal  servitude.  He  was 
pardoned  out  before  a  great  while. 


346    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

The  other  circumstance  was  the  arrest  of  Sur- 
ratt,  who  was  supposed  to  stand  next  to  Booth  in 
the  conspiracy,  but  who  escaped  from  the  country 
and  was  not  discovered  until  a  year  or  so  later, 
when  he  was  found  to  have  enlisted  in  the  papal 
guards  at  Home.  He  was  brought  home  and  tried 
twice.  On  the  first  trial,  notwithstanding  the  ad- 
verse rulings  and  charge  of  the  judge,  only  a  mi- 
nority of  the  jury  were  convinced  of  his  guilt.  On 
the  second  trial  he  was,  I  think,  acquitted. 

One  aftermath  of  the  civil  war  was  the  influx 
of  crowds  of  the  newly  freed  slaves  to  Washington, 
in  search  of  food  and  shelter.  With  a  little  train- 
ing they  made  fair  servants  if  only  their  pilfering 
propensities  could  be  restrained.  But  religious 
fervor  did  not  ensure  obedience  to  the  eighth  com- 
mandment. "  The  good  Lord  ain't  goin'  to  be 
hard  on  a  poor  darky  just  for  takin'  a  chicken 
now  and  then,"  said  a  wench  to  a  preacher  who 
had  asked  her  how  she  could  reconcile  her  reli- 
gion with  her  indifference  as  to  the  ownership  of 
poultry. 

In  the  seventies  I  had  an  eight-year-old  boy  as 
help  in  my  family.  He  had  that  beauty  of  face 
very  common  in  young  negroes  who  have  an  ad- 
mixture of  white  blood,  added  to  which  were  eyes 
of  such  depth  and  clearness  that,  but  for  his  color, 
he  would  have  made  a  first-class  angel  for  a  medi- 
aeval painter. 

One  evening  my  little  daughters  had  a  chil- 
dren's party,  and  Zeke  was  placed  as  attendant  in 


THE  OLD  AND  THE  NEW  WASHINGTON       347 

charge  of  the  room  in  which  the  little  company 
met.  Here  he  was  for  some  time  left  alone.  Next 
morning  a  gold  pen  was  missing  from  its  case  in  a 
drawer.  Suspicion  rested  on  Zeke  as  the  only  per- 
son who  could  possibly  have  taken  it,  but  there  was 
no  positive  proof.  I  thought  so  small  and  inno- 
cent-looking a  boy  could  be  easily  cowed  into  con- 
fessing his  guilt ;  so  next  morning  I  said  to  him 
very  solemnly,  — 

"  Zeke,  come  upstairs  with  me." 

He  obeyed  with  alacrity,  following  me  up  to  the 
room. 

"  Zeke,  come  into  this  room." 

He  did  so. 

"Now,  Zeke,"  I  said  sternly,  "look  here  and  see 
what  I  do." 

I  opened  the  drawer,  took  out  the  empty  case, 
opened  it,  and  showed  it  to  him. 

"  Zeke,  look  into  my  eyes  !  " 

He  neither  blinked  nor  showed  the  slightest 
abashment  or  hesitation  as  his  soft  eyes  looked 
steadily  into  mine  with  all  the  innocence  of  an 
angel. 

"  Zeke,  where  is  the  pen  out  of  that  case  ? " 

"  Missr  Newcomb,"  he  said  quietly,  "  I  don't 
know  nothin'  about  it." 

I  repeated  the  question,  looking  into  his  face  as 
sternly  as  I  could.  As  he  repeated  the  answer  with 
the  innocence  of  childhood,  "  Deed,  Missr  Newcomb, 
I  don't  know  what  was  in  it,"  I  felt  almost  like  a 
brute  in  pressing  him  with  such  severity.  Threats 


348    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

were  of  no  avail,  and  I  had  to  give  the  matter  up 
as  a  failure. 

On  coming  home  in  the  afternoon,  the  first  news 
was  that  the  pen  had  been  found  by  Zeke's  mother 
hidden  in  one  corner  of  her  room  at  home,  where 
the  little  thief  had  taken  it.  She,  being  an  honest 
woman,  and  suspecting  where  it  had  come  from, 
had  brought  it  back. 

There  was  a  vigorous  movement,  having  its 
origin  in  New  England,  for  the  education  of  the 
freedmen.  This  movement  was  animated  by  the 
most  philanthropic  views.  Here  were  several  mil- 
lions of  blacks  of  all  ages,  suddenly  made  citizens, 
or  eligible  to  citizenship,  and  yet  savage  so  far  as 
any  education  was  concerned.  A  small  army  of 
teachers,  many,  perhaps  most  of  them,  young  wo- 
men, were  sent  south  to  organize  schools  for  the 
blacks.  It  may  be  feared  that  there  was  little 
adaptation  of  the  teaching  to  the  circumstances  of 
the  case.  But  one  method  of  instruction  widely 
adopted  was,  so  far  as  I  can  learn,  quite  unique. 
It  was  the  "  loud  method  "  of  teaching  reading 
and  spelling.  The  whole  school  spelled  in  unison. 
The  passer-by  on  the  street  would  hear  in  chorus 
from  the  inside  of  the  building,  "B-R-E-A-D — 
BREAD  ! "  all  at  the  top  of  the  voice  of  the  speak- 
ers. Schools  in  which  this  method  was  adopted 
were  known  as  "  loud  schools." 

A  queer  result  of  this  movement  once  fell  under 
my  notice.  I  called  at  a  friend's  house  in  George- 


THE  OLD  AND  THE  NEW  WASHINGTON       349 

town.  In  the  course  of  the  conversation,  it  came 
out  that  the  sable  youngster  who  opened  the  door 
for  me  filled  the  double  office  of  scullion  to  the 
household  and  tutor  in  Latin  to  the  little  boy  of 
the  family. 

Probably  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  never 
had  a  member  more  conscientious  in  the  discharge 
of  his  duties  than  Charles  Sumner.  He  went  little 
into  society  outside  the  circles  of  the  diplomatic 
corps,  with  which  his  position  as  chairman  of  the 
Foreign  Affairs  Committee  placed  him  in  intimate 
relations.  My  acquaintance  with  him  arose  from 
the  accident  of  his  living  for  some  time  almost 
opposite  me.  I  was  making  a  study  of  some  his- 
toric subject,  pertaining  to  the  feeling  in  South 
Carolina  before  the  civil  war,  and  called  at  his 
rooms  to  see  if  he  would  favor  me  with  the  loan 
of  a  book,  which  I  was  sure  he  possessed.  He  re- 
ceived me  so  pleasantly  that  I  was,  for  some  time, 
an  occasional  visitor.  He  kept  bachelor  quarters 
on  a  second  floor,  lived  quite  alone,  and  was  acces- 
sible to  all  comers  without  the  slightest  ceremony. 

One  day,  while  I  was  talking  with  him,  shortly 
after  the  surrender  of  Lee,  a  young  man  in  the 
garb  of  a  soldier,  evidently  fresh  from  the  field, 
was  shown  into  the  room  by  the  housemaid,  un- 
announced, as  usual.  Very  naturally,  he  was  timid 
and  diffident  in  approaching  so  great  a  man,  and 
the  latter  showed  no  disposition  to  say  anything 
that  would  reassure  him.  He  ventured  to  tell  the 


350    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

senator  that  he  had  come  to  see  if  he  could  recom- 
mend him  for  some  public  employment.  I  shall 
never  forget  the  tone  of  the  reply. 

"  But  /  do  not  know  you."  The  poor  fellow 
was  completely  dumfounded,  and  tried  to  make 
some  excuses,  but  the  only  reply  he  got  was,  "  I 
cannot  do  it ;  I  do  not  know  you  at  all."  The 
visitor  had  nothing  to  do  but  turn  round  and 
leave. 

At  the  time  I  felt  some  sympathy  with  the  poor 
fellow.  He  had  probably  come,  thinking  that  the 
great  philanthropist  was  quite  ready  to  become  a 
friend  to  a  Union  soldier  without  much  inquiry 
into  his  personality  and  antecedents,  and  now  he 
met  with  a  stinging  rebuff.  But  it  must  be  con- 
fessed that  subsequent  experience  has  diminished 
my  sympathy  for  him,  and  probably  it  would  be 
better  for  the  country  if  the  innovation  were  intro- 
duced of  having  every  senator  of  the  United  States 
dispose  of  such  callers  in  the  same  way. 

Foreign  men  of  letters,  with  whom  Sumner's 
acquaintance  was  very  wide,  were  always  among  his 
most  valued  guests.  A  story  is  told  of  Thackeray's 
visit  to  Washington,  which  I  distrust  only  for  the 
reason  that  my  ideas  of  Sumner's  make-up  do  not 
assign  him  the  special  kind  of  humor  which  the  story 
brings  out.  He  was,  however,  quoted  as  saying, 
"  Thackeray  is  one  of  the  most  perfect  gentlemen 
I  ever  knew.  I  had  a  striking  illustration  of  that 
this  morning.  We  went  out  for  a  walk  together 
and,  thoughtlessly,  I  took  him  through  Lafayette 


THE  OLD  AND  THE  NEW  WASHINGTON       351 

Square.  Shortly  after  we  entered  it,  I  realized 
with  alarm  that  we  were  going  directly  toward  the 
Jackson  statue.  It  was  too  late  to  retrace  our 
steps,  and  I  wondered  what  Thackeray  would  say 
when  he  saw  the  object.  But  he  passed  straight 
by  without  seeming  to  see  it  at  all,  and  did  not  say 
one  word  about  it." 

Sunnier  was  the  one  man  in  the  Senate  whose 
seat  was  scarcely  ever  vacant  during  a  session.  He 
gave  the  closest  attention  to  every  subject  as  it 
arose.  One  instance  of  this  is  quite  in  the  line  of 
the  present  book.  About  1867,  an  association  was 
organized  in  Washington  under  the  name  of  the 
"  American  Union  Academy  of  Literature,  Science, 
and  Art."  Its  projectors  were  known  to  few,  or 
none,  but  themselves.  A  number  of  prominent 
citizens  in  various  walks  of  life  had  been  asked  to 
join  it,  and  several  consented  without  knowing 
much  about  the  association.  It  soon  became  evi- 
dent that  the  academy  was  desirous  of  securing  as 
much  publicity  as  possible  through  the  newspapers 
and  elsewhere.  It  was  reported  that  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury  had  asked  its  opinion  on  some 
instrument  or  appliance  connected  with  the  work 
of  his  department.  Congress  was  applied  to  for 
an  act  of  incorporation,  recognizing  it  as  a  scien- 
tific adviser  of  the  government  by  providing  that 
it  should  report  on  subjects  submitted  to  it  by  the 
governmental  departments,  the  intent  evidently 
being  that  it  should  supplant  the  National  Acad- 
emy of  Sciences. 


352    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

The  application  to  Congress  satisfied  the  two 
requirements  most  essential  to  favorable  considera- 
tion. These  are  that  several  respectable  citizens 
want  something  done,  and  that  there  is  no  one 
to  come  forward  and  say  that  he  does  not  want 
it  done.  Such  being  the  case,  the  act  passed  the 
House  of  Eepresentatives  without  opposition,  came 
to  the  Senate,  and  was  referred  to  the  appropriate 
committee,  that  on  education,  I  believe.  It  was 
favorably  reported  from  the  committee  and  placed 
on  its  passage.  Up  to  this  point  no  objection 
seems  to  have  been  made  to  it  in  any  quarter. 
Now,  it  was  challenged  by  Mr.  Sumner. 

The  ground  taken  by  the  Massachusetts  sena- 
tor was  comprehensive  and  simple,  though  possibly 
somewhat  novel.  It  was,  in  substance,  that  an 
academy  of  literature,  science,  and  art,  national  in 
its  character,  and  incorporated  by  special  act  of 
Congress,  ought  to  be  composed  of  men  eminent 
in  the  branches  to  which  the  academy  related.  He 
thought  a  body  of  men  consisting  very  largely  of 
local  lawyers,  with  scarcely  a  man  of  prominence 
in  either  of  the  three  branches  to  which  the  acad- 
emy was  devoted,  was  not  the  one  that  should 
receive  such  sanction  from  the  national  legisla- 
ture. 

Mr.  J.  W.  Patterson,  of  New  Hampshire,  was 
the  principal  advocate  of  the  measure.  He  claimed 
that  the  proposed  incorporators  were  not  all  un- 
scientific men,  and  cited  as  a  single  example  the 
name  of  0.  M.  Poe,  which  appeared  among  them. 


THE  OLD  AND  THE  NEW  WASHINGTON       353 

This  man,  he  said,  was  a  very  distinguished  meteor- 
ologist. 

This  example  was  rather  unfortunate.  The  fact 
is,  the  name  in  question  was  that  of  a  well-known 
officer  of  engineers  in  the  army,  then  on  duty  at 
Washington,  who  had  been  invited  to  join  the 
academy,  and  had  consented  out  of  good  nature 
without,  it  seems,  much  if  any  inquiry.  It  hap- 
pened that  Senator  Patterson  had,  some  time  dur- 
ing the  winter,  made  the  acquaintance  of  a  West 
Indian  meteorologist  named  Poey,  who  chanced  to 
be  spending  some  time  in  Washington,  and  got 
him  mixed  up  with  the  officer  of  engineers.  The 
senator  also  intimated  that  the  gentleman  from 
Massachusetts  had  been  approached  on  the  subject 
and  was  acting  under  the  influence  of  others.  This 
suggestion  Mr.  Sumner  repelled,  stating  that  no 
one  had  spoken  to  him  on  the  subject,  that  he 
knew  nothing  of  it  until  he  saw  the  bill  before 
them,  which  seemed  to  him  to  be  objectionable  for 
the  very  reasons  set  forth.  On  his  motion  the  bill 
was  laid  on  the  table,  and  thus  disposed  of  for 
good.  The  academy  held  meetings  for  some  time 
after  this  failure,  but  soon  disappeared  from  view, 
and  was  never  again  heard  of. 

In  the  year  1862,  a  fine-looking  young  general 
from  the  West  became  a  boarder  in  the  house 
where  I  lived,  and  sat  opposite  me  at  table.  His 
name  was  James  A.  Garfield.  I  believe  he  had 
come  to  Washington  as  a  member  of  the  court  in 


354    THE  REMINISCENCES  OP  AN  ASTRONOMER 

the  case  of  General  Fitz  John  Porter.  He  left 
after  a  short  time  and  had,  I  supposed,  quite  for- 
gotten me.  But,  after  his  election  to  Congress,  he 
one  evening  visited  the  observatory,  stepped  into 
my  room,  and  recalled  our  former  acquaintance. 

I  soon  found  him  to  be  a  man  of  classical  cul- 
ture, refined  tastes,  and  unsurpassed  eloquence,  — 
altogether,  one  of  the  most  attractive  of  men.  On 
one  occasion  he  told  me  one  of  his  experiences  in 
the  State  legislature  of  Ohio,  of  which  he  was  a 
member  before  the  civil  war.  A  bill  was  before 
the  House  enacting  certain  provisions  respecting  a 
depository.  He  moved,  as  an  amendment,  to  strike 
out  the  word  "  depository  "  and  insert  "  deposi- 
tary." Supposing  the  amendment  to  be  merely 
one  of  spelling,  there  was  a  general  laugh  over  the 
house,  with  a  cry  of  "  Here  comes  the  schoolmas- 
ter !  "  But  he  insisted  on  his  point,  and  sent  for  a 
copy  of  Webster's  Dictionary  in  order  that  the  two 
words  might  be  compared.  When  the  definitions 
were  read,  the  importance  of  right  spelling  became 
evident,  and  the  laughing  stopped. 

It  has  always  seemed  to  me  that  a  rank  injus- 
tice was  done  to  Garfield  on  the  occasion  of  the 
Credit  Mobilier  scandal  of  1873,  which  came  near 
costing  him  his  position  in  public  life.  The  evi- 
dence was  of  so  indefinite  and  flimsy  a  nature  that 
the  credence  given  to  the  conclusion  from  it  can 
only  illustrate  how  little  a  subject  or  a  document  is 
exposed  to  searching  analysis  outside  the  precincts 
of  a  law  court.  When  he  was  nominated  for  the 


THE  OLD  AND   THE  NEW  WASHINGTON      355 

presidency  this  scandal  was  naturally  raked  up 
and  much  made  of  it.  I  was  so  strongly  impressed 
with  the  injustice  as  to  write  for  a  New  York 
newspaper,  anonymously  of  course,  a  careful  analy- 
sis of  the  evidence,  with  a  demonstration  of  its 
total  weakness.  Whether  the  article  was  widely 
circulated,  or  whether  Garfield  ever  heard  of  it,  I 
do  not  know ;  but  it  was  amusing,  a  few  days  after 
it  appeared,  to  see  a  paragraph  in  an  opposition 
paper  claiming  that  its  contemporary  had  gone  to 
the  trouble  of  hiring  a  lawyer  to  defend  Garfield. 

No  man  better  qualified  as  a  legislator  ever  oc- 
cupied a  seat  in  Congress.  A  man  cast  in  the 
largest  mould,  and  incapable  of  a  petty  sentiment, 
his  grasp  of  public  affairs  was  rarely  equaled,  and 
his  insight  into  the  effects  of  legislation  was  of  the 
deepest.  But  on  what  the  author  of  the  Autocrat 
calls  the  arithmetical  side, — in  the  power  of  judg- 
ing particular  men  and  not  general  principles  ;  in 
deciding  who  were  the  good  men  and  who  were 
not,  he  fell  short  of  the  ideal  suggested  by  his  leg- 
islative career.  The  brief  months  during  which 
he  administered  the  highest  of  offices  were  stormy 
enough,  perhaps  stormier  than  any  president  be- 
fore him  had  ever  experienced,  and  they  would 
probably  have  been  outdone  by  the  years  following, 
had  he  lived.  But  I  believe  that,  had  he  remained 
in  the  Senate,  his  name  would  have  gone  into  his- 
tory among  those  of  the  greatest  of  legislators. 

Sixteen  years  after  the  death  of  Lincoln  public 
feeling  was  again  moved  to  its  depth  by  the  assas- 


356    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

sination  of  Garfield.  The  cry  seemed  to  pass  from 
mouth  to  mouth  through  the  streets  faster  than  a 
messenger  could  carry  the  news,  "  The  President 
has  been  shot."  It  chanced  to  reach  me  just  as  I 
was  entering  my  office.  I  at  once  summoned  my 
messenger  and  directed  him  to  go  over  to  the 
White  House,  and  see  if  anything  unusual  had 
happened,  but  gave  him  no  intimation  of  my  fears. 
He  promptly  returned  with  the  confirmation  of  the 
report.  The  following  are  extracts  from  my  jour- 
nal at  the  time :  — 

"  July  2,  Saturday :  At  9.20  this  morning  President 
Garfield  was  shot  by  a  miserable  fellow  named  Guiteau, 
as  he  was  passing  through  the  Baltimore  and  Potomac 
R.  R.  station  to  leave  Washington.  One  ball  went 
through  the  upper  arm,  making  a  flesh  wound,  the  other 
entered  the  right  side  on  the  back  and  cannot  be  found ; 
supposed  to  have  lodged  in  the  liver.  In  the  course  of 
the  day  President  rapidly  weakened,  and  supposed  to  be 
dying  from  hemorrhage." 

"  Sunday  morning :  President  still  living  and  rallied 
during  the  day.  Small  chance  of  recovery.  At  night 
alarming  symptoms  of  inflammation  were  exhibited,  and 
at  midnight  his  case  seemed  almost  hopeless." 

"Monday:  President  slightly  better  this  morning, 
improving  throughout  the  day." 

"  July  6.  This  p.  M.  sought  an  interview  with  Dr. 
Woodward  at  the  White  House,  to  talk  of  an  apparatus 
for  locating  the  ball  by  its  action  in  retarding  a  rapidly 
revolving  el.  magnet.  I  hardly  think  the  plan  more  than 
theoretically  practical,  owing  to  the  minuteness  of  the 
action." 

"  The  President  still  improving,  but  great  dangers  are 


THE   OLD   AND   THE  NEW  WASHINGTON       357 

yet  to  come,  and  nothing  has  been  found  of  the  ball, 
which  is  supposed  to  have  stayed  in  the  liver  because, 
were  it  anywhere  else,  symptoms  of  irritation  by  its  pre- 
sence would  have  been  shown." 

"July  9.  This  is  Saturday  evening.  Met  Major 
Powell  at  the  Cosmos  Club,  who  told  me  that  they  would 
like  to  have  me  look  at  the  air-cooling  projects  at  the 
White  House.  Published  statement  that  the  physicians 
desired  some  way  to  cool  the  air  of  the  President's  room 
had  brought  a  crowd  of  projects  and  machines  of  all 
kinds.  Among  other  things,  a  Mr.  Dorsey  had  got  from 
New  York  an  air  compressor  such  as  is  used  in  the  Vir- 
ginia mines  for  transferring  power,  and  was  erecting 
machinery  enough  for  a  steamship  at  the  east  end  of  the 
house  in  order  to  run  it." 

Dr.  Woodward  was  a  surgeon  of  the  army,  who 
had  been  on  duty  at  Washington  since  the  civil 
war,  in  charge  of  the  Army  Medical  Museum. 
Among  his  varied  works  here,  that  in  micro-pho- 
tography, in  which  he  was  a  pioneer,  gave  him  a 
wide  reputation.  His  high  standing  led  to  his 
being  selected  as  one  of  the  President's  physicians. 
To  him  I  wrote  a  note,  offering  to  be  of  any  use  I 
could  in  the  matter  of  cooling  the  air  of  the  Pre- 
sident's chamber.  He  promptly  replied  with  a  re- 
quest to  visit  the  place,  and  see  what  was  being 
done  and  what  suggestions  I  could  make.  Mr. 
Dorsey's  engine  at  the  east  end  was  dispensed 
with  after  a  long  discussion,  owing  to  the  noise 
it  would  make  and  the  amount  of  work  necessary 
to  its  final  installation  and  operation. 

Among  the  problems  with  which  the  surgeons 


358    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

had  to  wrestle  was  that  of  locating  the  ball.  The 
question  occurred  to  me  whether  it  was  not  pos- 
sible to  do  so  by  the  influence  produced  by  the 
action  of  a  metallic  conductor  in  retarding  the 
motion  of  a  rapidly  revolving  magnet,  but  the 
effect  would  be  so  small,  and  the  apparatus  to  be 
made  so  delicate,  that  I  was  very  doubtful  about 
the  matter.  If  there  was  any  one  able  to  take  hold 
of  the  project  successfully,  I  knew  it  would  be 
Alexander  Graham  Bell,  the  inventor  of  the  tele- 
phone. When  I  approached  him  on  the  subject, 
he  suggested  that  the  idea  of  locating  the  ball  had 
also  occurred  to  him,  and  that  he  thought  the  best 
apparatus  for  the  purpose  was  a  telephonic  one 
which  had  been  recently  developed  by  Mr.  Hughes. 
As  there  could  be  no  doubt  of  the  superiority  of 
his  project,  I  dropped  mine,  and  he  went  forward 
with  his.  In  a  few  days  an  opportunity  was  given 
him  for  actually  trying  it.  The  result,  though 
rather  doubtful,  seemed  to  be  that  the  ball  was 
located  where  the  surgeons  supposed  it  to  be. 
When  the  autopsy  showed  that  their  judgment  had 
been  at  fault,  Mr.  Bell  admitted  his  error  to  Dr. 
Woodward,  adding  some  suggestion  as  to  its  cause. 
"Expectant  attention,"  was  Woodward's  reply. 

I  found  in  the  basement  of  the  house  an  appa- 
ratus which  had  been  brought  over  by  a  Mr.  Jen- 
nings from  Baltimore,  which  was  designed  to  cool 
the  air  of  dairies  or  apartments.  It  consisted  of 
an  iron  box,  two  or  three  feet  square,  and  some 
five  feet  long.  In  this  box  were  suspended  cloths, 


THE  OLD  AND  THE  NEW  WASHINGTON       359 

kept  cool  and  damp  by  the  water  from  melting  ice 
contained  in  a  compartment  on  top  of  the  box. 
The  air  was  driven  through  the  box  by  a  blower, 
and  cooled  by  contact  with  the  wet  cloths.  But 
no  effect  was  being  produced  on  the  temperature 
of  the  room. 

One  conversant  with  physics  will  see  one  fatal 
defect  in  this  appliance.  The  cold  of  the  ice,  if  I 
may  use  so  unscientific  an  expression,  went  pretty 
much  to  waste.  The  air  was  in  contact,  not  with 
the  ice,  as  it  should  have  been,  but  with  ice-water, 
which  had  already  absorbed  the  latent  heat  of 
melting. 

Evidently  the  air  should  be  passed  over  the  un- 
melted  ice.  The  question  was  how  much  ice  would 
be  required  to  produce  the  necessary  cooling  ?  To 
settle  this,  I  instituted  an  experiment.  A  block  of 
ice  was  placed  in  an  adjoining  room  in  a  current 
of  air  with  such  an  arrangement  that,  as  it  melted, 
the  water  would  trickle  into  a  vessel  below.  After 
a  certain  number  of  minutes  the  melted  water  was 
measured,  then  a  simple  computation  led  to  a  know- 
ledge of  how  much  heat  was  absorbed  from  the  air 
per  minute  by  a  square  foot  of  the  surface  of  the 
ice.  From  this  it  was  easy  to  calculate  from  the 
known  thermal  capacity  of  air,  and  the  quantity  of 
the  latter  necessary  per  minute,  how  many  feet  of 
cooling  surface  must  be  exposed.  I  was  quite  sur- 
prised at  the  result.  A  case  of  ice  nearly  as  long 
as  an  ordinary  room,  and  large  enough  for  men 
to  walk  about  in  it,  must  be  provided.  This  was 


360    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

speedily  done,  supports  were  erected  for  the  blocks 
of  ice,  the  case  was  placed  at  the  end  of  Mr.  Jen- 
nings's  box,  and  everything  gotten  in  readiness  for 
directing  the  air  current  through  the  receptacle, 
and  into  the  room  through  tubes  which  had  already 
been  prepared. 

It  happened  that  Mr.  Jennings's  box  was  on  the 
line  along  which  the  air  was  being  conducted,  and 
I  was  going  to  get  it  out  of  the  way.  The  owner 
implored  that  it  should  be  allowed  to  remain,  sug- 
gesting that  the  air  might  just  as  well  as  not  con- 
tinue to  pass  through  it.  The  surroundings  were 
those  in  which  one  may  be  excused  for  not  being 
harsh.  Such  an  outpouring  of  sympathy  on  the 
part  of  the  public  had  never  been  seen  in  Washing- 
ton since  the  assassination  of  Lincoln.  Those  in 
charge  were  overwhelmed  with  every  sort  of  con- 
trivance for  relieving  the  sufferings  of  the  illustri- 
ous patient.  Such  disinterested  efforts  in  behalf 
of  a  public  and  patriotic  object  had  never  been 
seen.  Mr.  Jennings  had  gone  to  the  trouble  and 
expense  of  bringing  his  apparatus  all  the  way 
from  Baltimore  to  Washington  in  order  to  do  what 
in  him  lay  toward  the  end  for  which  all  were 
striving.  To  leave  his  box  in  place  could  not  do 
the  slightest  harm,  and  would  be  a  gratification 
to  him.  So  I  let  it  stand,  and  the  air  continued 
to  pass  through  it  on  its  way  to  the  ice  chest. 

While  these  arrangements  were  in  progress 
three  officers  of  engineers  of  the  navy  reported 
under  orders  at  the  White  House,  to  do  what  they 


THE  OLD  AND  THE  NEW  WASHINGTON       361 

could  toward  the  cooling  of  the  air.  They  were 
Messrs.  William  L.  Baillie,  Richard  Inch,  and 
W.  S.  Moore.  All  four  of  us  cooperated  in  the 
work  in  a  most  friendly  way,  and  when  we  got 
through  we  made  our  reports  to  the  Navy  Depart- 
ment. A  few  weeks  later  these  reports  were 
printed  in  a  pamphlet,  partly  to  correct  a  wrong 
impression  about  the  Jennings  cold-box.  Regular 
statements  had  appeared  in  the  local  evening  paper 
that  the  air  was  being  cooled  by  this  useless  con- 
trivance. Their  significance  first  came  out  several 
months  later,  on  the  occasion  of  an  exhibition  of 
mechanical  or  industrial  implements  at  Boston. 
Among  these  was  Mr.  Jennings's  cold-box,  which 
was  exhibited  as  the  instrument  that  had  cooled 
the  air  of  President  Garfield's  chamber. 

More  light  yet  was  thrown  on  the  case  when  the 
question  of  rewarding  those  who  had  taken  part  in 
treating  the  President,  or  alleviating  his  sufferings 
in  any  way,  came  before  Congress.  Mr.  Jennings 
was,  I  believe,  among  the  claimants.  Congress 
found  the  task  of  making  the  proper  awards  to 
each  individual  to  be  quite  beyond  its  power  at 
the  time,  so  a  lump  sum  was  appropriated,  to  be 
divided  by  the  Treasury  Department  according  to 
its  findings  in  each  particular  case.  Before  the 
work  of  making  the  awards  was  completed,  I  left 
on  the  expedition  to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  to 
observe  the  transit  of  Venus,  and  never  learned 
what  had  been  done  with  the  claims  of  Mr.  Jen- 
nings. It  might  naturally  be  supposed  that  when 


362    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

an  official  report  to  the  Navy  Department  showed 
that  he  had  no  claims  whatever  except  those  of  a 
patriotic  citizen  who  had  done  his  best,  which  was 
just  nothing  at  all,  to  promote  the  common  end, 
the  claim  would  have  received  little  attention.  Pos- 
sibly this  may  have  been  the  case.  But  I  do  not 
know  what  the  outcome  of  the  matter  was. 

Shortly  after  the  death  of  the  President,  I  had  a 
visit  from  an  inventor  who  had  patented  a  method 
of  cooling  the  air  of  a  room  by  ice.  He  claimed 
that  our  work  at  the  Executive  Mansion  was  an 
infringement  on  his  patent.  I  replied  that  I  could 
not  see  how  any  infringement  was  possible,  because 
we  had  gone  to  work  in  the  most  natural  way, 
without  consulting  any  previous  process  whatever, 
or  even  knowing  of  the  existence  of  a  patent. 
Surely  the  operation  of  passing  air  over  ice  to 
cool  it  could  not  be  patentable. 

He  invited  me  to  read  over  the  statement  of  his 
claims.  I  found  that  although  this  process  was 
not  patented  in  terms,  it  was  practically  patented 
by  claiming  about  every  possible  way  in  which  ice 
could  be  arranged  for  cooling  purposes.  Placing 
the  ice  on  supports  was  one  of  his  claims ;  this  we 
had  undoubtedly  done,  because  otherwise  the  pro- 
cess could  not  have  been  carried  out.  In  a  word, 
the  impression  I  got  was  that  the  only  sure  way 
of  avoiding  an  infringement  would  have  been  to 
blindfold  the  men  who  put  the  ice  in  the  box,  and 
ask  them  to  throw  it  in  pellmell.  Every  method 
of  using  judgment  in  arranging  the  blocks  of  ice 
he  had  patented. 


THE  OLD  AND   THE  NEW  WASHINGTON       363 

I  had  to  acknowledge  that  his  claim  of  infringe- 
ment might  have  some  foundation,  and  inquired 
what  he  proposed  to  do  in  the  case.  He  replied 
that  he  did  not  wish  to  do  more  than  have  his 
priority  recognized  in  the  matter.  I  replied  that 
I  had  no  objection  to  his  doing  this  in  any  way  he 
could,  and  he  took  his  leave.  Nothing  more,  so 
far  as  I  am  aware,  was  done  in  his  case.  But  I 
was  much  impressed  by  this  as  by  other  examples 
I  have  had  of  the  same  kind,  of  the  loose  way  in 
which  our  Patent  Office  sometimes  grants  patents. 

I  do  not  think  the  history  of  any  modern  muni- 
cipality can  show  an  episode  more  extraordinary 
or,  taken  in  connection  with  its  results,  more  in- 
structive than  what  is  known  as  the  "  Shepherd 
regime"  in  Washington.  What  is  especially  in- 
teresting about  it  is  the  opposite  views  that  can  be 
taken  of  the  same  facts.  As  to  the  latter  there 
is  no  dispute.  Yet,  from  one  point  of  view,  Shep- 
herd made  one  of  the  most  disastrous  failures  on 
record  in  attempting  to  carry  out  great  works, 
while,  from  another  point  of  view,  he  is  the  author 
of  the  beautiful  Washington  of  to-day,  and  entitled 
to  a  public  statue  in  recognition  of  his  services. 
As  I  was  a  resident  of  the  city  and  lived  in  my 
own  house,  I  was  greatly  interested  in  the  proposed 
improvements,  especially  of  the  particular  street  on 
which  I  lived.  I  was  also  an  eye-witness  to  so 
much  of  the  whole  history  as  the  public  was  cog- 
nizant of.  The  essential  facts  of  the  case,  from 


364    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

the  two  opposing  points  of  view,  are  exceedingly 
simple. 

One  fact  is  the  discreditable  condition  of  the 
streets  of  Washington  during  and  after  the  civil 
war.  The  care  of  these  was  left  entirely  to  the 
local  municipality.  Congress,  so  far  as  I  know, 
gave  no  aid  except  by  paying  its  share  of  street 
improvements  in  front  of  the  public  buildings.  It 
was  quite  out  of  the  power  of  the  residents,  who 
had  but  few  men  of  wealth  among  them,  to  make 
the  city  what  it  ought  to  be.  Congress  showed 
no  disposition  to  come  to  the  help  of  the  citizens 
in  this  task. 

In  1871,  however,  some  public-spirited  citizens 
took  the  matter  in  hand  and  succeeded  in  having 
a  new  government  established,  which  was  modeled 
after  that  of  the  territories  of  the  United  States. 
There  was  a  governor,  a  legislature,  and  a  board 
of  public  works.  The  latter  was  charged  with  the 
improvements  of  the  streets,  and  the  governor  was 
ex  officio  its  president.  The  first  governor  was 
Henry  D.  Cooke,  the  banker,  and  Mr.  Shepherd 
was  vice-president  of  the  board  of  public  works 
and  its  leading  member.  Mr.  Cooke  resigned  after 
a  short  term,  and  Mr.  Shepherd  was  promoted  to 
his  place.  He  was  a  plumber  and  gas-fitter  by 
trade,  and  managed  the  leading  business  in  his 
line  in  Washington.  Through  the  two  or  three 
years  of  his  administration  the  city  directory  still 
contained  the  entry  — 

Shepherd,  Alex.  R.  &  Co.,  plumbers  and  gas-fitters, 
910  Pa.  Ave.  N.  W. 


THE  OLD  AND  THE  NEW  WASHINGTON       365 

In  recent  years  he  had  added  to  his  plumbing  busi- 
ness that  of  erecting  houses  for  sale.  He  had 
had  no  experience  in  the  conduct  of  public  busi- 
ness, and,  of  course,  was  neither  an  engineer  nor  a 
financier.  But  such  was  the  energy  of  his  char- 
acter and  his  personal  influence,  that  he  soon  be- 
came practically  the  whole  government,  which  he 
ran  in  his  own  way,  as  if  it  were  simply  his  own 
business  enlarged.  Of  the  conditions  which  the 
law  imposes  on  contracts,  of  the  numerous  and 
complicated  problems  of  engineering  involved  in 
the  drainage  and  street  systems  of  a  great  city,  of 
the  precautions  to  be  taken  in  preparing  plans  for 
so  immense  a  work,  and  of  the  legal  restraints 
under  which  it  should  be  conducted,  he  had  no  spe- 
cial knowledge.  But  he  had  in  the  highest  degree 
a  quality  which  will  bear  different  designations  ac- 
cording to  the  point  of  view.  His  opponents  would 
call  it  unparalleled  recklessness;  his  supporters, 
boldness  and  enterprise. 

Such  were  the  preliminaries.  Three  years  later 
the  results  of  his  efforts  were  made  known  by  an 
investigating  committee  of  Congress,  with  Senator 
Allison,  a  political  friend,  at  its  head.  It  was  found 
that  with  authority  to  expend  $6,000,000  in  the 
improvement  of  the  streets,  there  was  an  actual  or 
supposed  expenditure  of  more  than  $18,000,000, 
and  a  crowd  of  additional  claims  which  no  man 
could  estimate,  based  on  the  work  of  more  than 
one  thousand  principal  contractors  and  an  unknown 
number  of  purchasers  and  sub-contractors.  Chaos 


366    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

reigned  supreme.  Some  streets  were  still  torn  up 
and  impassable ;  others  completely  paved,  but  done 
so  badly  that  the  pavements  were  beginning  to  rot 
almost  before  being  pressed  by  a  carriage.  A  debt 
had  been  incurred  which  it  was  impossible  for  the 
local  municipality  to  carry  and  which  was  still  pil- 
ing up. 

For  all  this  Congress  was  responsible,  and  man- 
fully shouldered  its  responsibility.  Mr.  Shepherd 
was  legislated  out  of  office  as  an  act  of  extreme 
necessity,  by  the  organization  of  a  government  at 
the  head  of  which  were  three  commissioners.  The 
feeling  on  the  subject  may  be  inferred  from  the 
result  when  President  Grant,  who  had  given  Shep- 
herd his  powerful  support  all  through,  nominated 
him  as  one  of  the  three  commissioners.  The  Sen- 
ate rejected  the  nomination,  with  only  some  half 
dozen  favorable  votes. 

The  three  commissioners  took  up  the  work  and 
carried  it  on  in  a  conservative  way.  Congress 
came  to  the  help  of  the  municipality  by  bearing 
one  half  the  taxation  of  the  District,  on  the  very 
sound  basis  that,  as  it  owned  about  one  half  of  the 
property,  it  should  pay  one  half  the  taxes. 

The  spirit  of  the  time  is  illustrated  by  two  lit- 
tle episodes.  The  reservation  on  which  the  public 
library  founded  by  Mr.  Carnegie  is  now  built,  was 
then  occupied  by  the  Northern  Liberties  Market,  one 
of  the  three  principal  markets  of  the  city.  Being 
a  public  reservation,  it  had  no  right  to  remain  there 
except  during  the  pleasure  of  the  authorities.  Due 


THE  OLD  AND  THE  NEW  WASHINGTON      367 

notice  was  given  to  the  marketmen  to  remove  the 
structures.  The  owners  were  dilatory  in  doing  so, 
and  probably  could  not  see  why  they  should  be 
removed  when  the  ground  was  not  wanted  for  any 
other  purpose,  and  before  they  had  time  to  find  a 
new  location.  It  was  understood  that,  if  an  at- 
tempt was  made  to  remove  the  buildings,  the  mar- 
ketmen would  apply  to  the  courts  for  an  injunc- 
tion. To  prevent  this,  an  arrangement  was  made 
by  which  the  destruction  of  the  buildings  was  to 
commence  at  dinner-time.  At  the  same  time,  ac- 
cording to  current  report,  it  was  specially  arranged 
that  all  the  judges  to  whom  an  application  could  be 
made  should  be  invited  out  to  dinner.  However 
this  may  have  been,  a  large  body  of  men  appeared 
upon  the  scene  in  the  course  of  the  evening  and 
spent  the  night  in  destroying  the  buildings.  With 
such  energy  was  the  work  carried  on  that  one 
marketman  was  killed  and  another  either  wounded 
or  seriously  injured  in  trying  to  save  their  wares 
from  destruction.  The  indignation  against  Shep- 
herd was  such  that  his  life  was  threatened,  and  it 
was  even  said  that  a  body-guard  of  soldiers  had  to 
be  supplied  by  the  War  Department  for  his  pro- 
tection. 

The  other  event  was  as  comical  as  this  was  tragic. 
It  occurred  while  the  investigating  committee  of 
Congress  was  at  its  work.  The  principal  actors  in 
the  case  were  Mr.  Harrington,  secretary  of  the  local 
government  and  one  of  Mr.  Shepherd's  assistants, 
the  chief  of  police,  and  a  burglar.  Harrington 


368    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

produced  an  anonymous  letter,  warning  him  that 
an  attempt  would  be  made  in  the  course  of  a  cer- 
tain night  to  purloin  from  the  safe  in  which  they 
were  kept,  certain  government  papers,  which  the 
prosecutors  of  the  case  against  Shepherd  were 
anxious  to  get  hold  of.  He  showed  this  letter  to 
the  chief  of  police,  who  was  disposed  to  make 
light  of  the  matter.  But  on  Harrington's  urgent 
insistence  the  two  men  kept  watch  about  the  pre- 
mises on  the  night  in  question.  They  were  in  the 
room  adjoining  that  in  which  the  records  were 
kept,  and  through  which  the  robber  would  have 
to  pass.  In  due  time  the  latter  appeared,  passed 
through  the  room  and  proceeded  to  break  into  the 
safe.  The  chief  wanted  to  arrest  him  immedi- 
ately, but  Harrington  asked  him  to  wait,  in  order 
that  they  might  see  what  the  man  was  after,  and 
especially  what  he  did  with  the  books.  So  they 
left  and  took  their  stations  outside  the  door.  The 
burglar  left  the  building  with  the  books  in  a 
satchel,  and,  stepping  outside,  was  confronted  by 
the  two  men. 

I  believe  every  burglar  of  whom  history  or  fic- 
tion has  kept  any  record,  whether  before  or  after 
this  eventful  night,  when  he  broke  open  a  safe  and, 
emerging  with  his  booty,  found  himself  confronted 
by  a  policeman,  took  to  his  heels.  Not  so  this  bur- 
glar. He  walked  up  to  the  two  men,  and  with  the 
utmost  unconcern  asked  if  they  could  tell  him  where 
Mr.  Columbus  Alexander  lived.  Mr.  Alexander,  it 
should  be  said,  was  the  head  man  in  the  prosecu- 


THE  OLD  AND  THE  NEW  WASHINGTON       369 

tion.  The  desired  information  being  conveyed  to 
the  burglar,  he  went  on  his  way  to  Mr.  Alexander's 
house,  followed  by  the  two  agents  of  the  law.  Ar- 
riving there,  he  rang  the  bell. 

In  the  ordinary  course  of  events,  Mr.  Alexander 
or  some  member  of  his  family  would  have  come  to 
the  door  and  been  informed  that  the  caller  had  a 
bundle  for  him.  A  man  just  awakened  from  a 
sound  sleep  and  coming  downstairs  rubbing  his 
eyes,  would  not  be  likely  to  ask  any  questions  of 
such  a  messenger,  but  would  accept  the  bundle  and 
lock  the  door  again.  Then  what  a  mess  the  prose- 
cution would  have  been  in !  Its  principal  promoter 
detected  in  collusion  with  a  burglar  in  order  to  get 
possession  of  the  documents  necessary  to  carry  on 
his  case  ! 

It  happened,  however,  that  Mr.  Alexander  and 
the  members  of  his  household  all  slept  the  sleep  of 
the  just  and  did  not  hear  the  bell.  The  patience  of 
the  policeman  was  exhausted  and  the  burglar  was 
arrested  and  lodged  in  jail,  where  he  was  kept  for 
several  months.  Public  curiosity  to  hear  the  bur- 
glar's story  was  brought  to  a  high  pitch,  but  never 
gratified.  Before  the  case  came  to  trial  the  prisoner 
was  released  on  straw  bail  and  never  again  found. 
I  do  not  think  the  bottom  facts,  especially  those 
connected  with  the  anonymous  letter,  were  ever 
brought  to  light.  So  every  one  was  left  to  form 
his  own  theory  of  what  has  since  been  known  as 
the  "  Safe  Burglary  Conspiracy." 

What  seems  at  present  the  fashionable  way  of 


370    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

looking  at  the  facts  is  this  :  Shepherd  was  the  man 
who  planned  the  beautiful  Washington  of  to-day, 
and  who  carried  out  his  project  with  unexampled 
energy  until  he  was  stopped  through  the  clamor  of 
citizens  who  did  not  want  to  see  things  go  ahead  so 
fast.  Other  people  took  the  work  up,  but  they  only 
carried  out  Shepherd's  ideas.  The  latter,  therefore, 
should  have  all  the  credit  due  to  the  founder  of  the 
new  Washington. 

The  story  has  always  seemed  to  me  most  inter- 
esting as  an  example  of  the  way  in  which  public 
judgment  of  men  and  things  is  likely  to  be  influ- 
enced. Public  sentiment  during  the  thirty  years 
which  have  since  elapsed  has  undergone  such  a 
revolution  in  favor  of  Shepherd  that  a  very  likely 
outcome  will  be  a  monument  to  commemorate  his 
work.  But  it  is  worth  while  to  notice  the  mental 
processes  by  which  the  public  now  reaches  this  con- 
clusion. It  is  the  familiar  and  ordinarily  correct 
method  of  putting  this  and  that  together. 

This  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  cities  in  the 
United  States,  of  which  Americans  generally  are 
proud  when  they  pay  it  a  visit. 

That  is  the  recollection  of  the  man  who  com- 
menced the  work  of  transforming  an  unsightly, 
straggling,  primitive  town  into  the  present  Wash- 
ington, and  was  condemned  for  what  he  did. 

These  two  considerations  form  the  basis  of  the 
conclusion,  all  intermediate  details  dropping  out  of 
sight  and  memory.  The  reckless  maladministra- 
tion of  the  epoch,  making  it  absolutely  necessary 


THE  OLD  AND  THE  NEW  WASHINGTON       371 

to  introduce  a  new  system,  has  no  place  in  the 
picture. 

There  is  also  a  moral  to  the  story,  which  is  more 
instructive  than  pleasant.  The  actors  in  the  case 
no  doubt  believed  that  if  they  set  about  their  work 
in  a  conservative  and  law-abiding  way,  spending 
only  as  much  money  as  could  be  raised,  Congress 
would  never  come  to  their  help.  So  they  deter- 
mined to  force  the  game,  by  creating  a  situation 
which  would  speedily  lead  to  the  correct  solution  of 
the  problem.  I  do  not  think  any  observant  person 
will  contest  the  proposition  that  had  Shepherd  gone 
about  his  work  and  carried  it  to  a  successful  con- 
clusion in  a  peaceable  and  law-abiding  way,  —  had 
he  done  nothing  to  excite  public  attention  except 
wisely  and  successfully  to  administer  a  great  public 
work,  —  his  name  would  now  have  been  as  little 
remembered  in  connection  with  what  he  did  as 
we  remember  those  of  Ketchem,  Phelps,  and  the 
other  men  who  repaired  the  wreck  he  left  and  made 
the  city  what  it  is  to-day. 

In  my  mind  one  question  dominates  all  others 
growing  out  of  the  case  :  What  will  be  the  moral 
effect  on  our  children  of  holding  up  for  their  imi- 
tation such  methods  as  I  have  described  ? 


XIII 

MISCELLANEA 

IF  the  "Great  Star-Catalogue  Case"  is  not  sur- 
rounded with  such  mystery  as  would  entitle  it  to 
a  place  among  causes  celebres,  it  may  well  be  so 
classed  on  account  of  the  novelty  of  the  questions 
at  issue.  It  affords  an  instructive  example  of  the 
possibility  of  cases  in  which  strict  justice  cannot 
be  done  through  the  established  forms  of  legal  pro- 
cedure. It  is  also  of  scientific  interest  because, 
although  the  question  was  a  novel  one  to  come 
before  a  court,  it  belongs  to  a  class  which  every 
leader  in  scientific  investigation  must  constantly 
encounter  in  meting  out  due  credit  to  his  assistants. 
The  plaintiff,  Christian  H.  F.  Peters,  was  a  Dane 
by  birth,  and  graduated  at  the  University  of  Berlin 
in  1836.  During  the  earlier  years  of  his  manhood 
he  was  engaged  in  the  trigonometrical  survey  of 
the  kingdom  of  Naples,  where,  for  a  time,  he  had 
charge  of  an  observatory  or  some  other  astro- 
nomical station.  It  is  said  that,  like  many  other 
able  European  youth  of  the  period,  he  was  impli- 
cated in  the  revolution  of  1848,  and  had  to  flee  the 
kingdom  in  consequence.  Five  years  later,  he 
came  to  the  United  States.  Here  his  first  patron 


MISCELLANEA  373 

was  Dr.  B.  A.  Gould,  who  procured  for  him  first  a 
position  on  the  Coast  Survey,  and  then  one  as  his 
assistant  at  the  Dudley  Observatory  in  Albany. 
He  was  soon  afterward  appointed  professor  of 
astronomy  and  director  of  the  Litchfield  Obser- 
vatory at  Hamilton  College,  where  he  spent  the 
remaining  thirty  years  of  his  life.  He  was  a  man 
of  great  learning,  not  only  in  subjects  pertaining 
to  astronomy,  but  in  ancient  and  modern  lan- 
guages. The  means  at  his  disposal  were  naturally 
of  the  slenderest  kind ;  but  he  was  the  discoverer 
of  some  forty  asteroids,  and  devoted  himself  to 
various  astronomical  works  and  researches  with 
great  ability. 

Of  his  personality  it  may  be  said  that  it  was  ex- 
tremely agreeable  so  long  as  no  important  differ- 
ences arose.  What  it  would  be  in  such  a  case  can 
be  judged  by  what  follows.  Those  traits  of  char- 
acter which  in  men  like  him  may  be  smoothed 
down  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  by  marital  disci- 
pline were,  in  the  absence  of  any  such  agency, 
maintained  in  all  their  strength  to  his  latest  years. 

The  defendant,  Charles  A.  Borst,  was  a  gradu- 
ate of  the  college  and  had  been  a  favorite  pupil  of 
Peters.  He  was  a  man  of  extraordinary  energy 
and  working  capacity,  ready  to  take  hold  in  a  busi- 
ness-like way  of  any  problem  presented  to  him,  but 
not  an  adept  at  making  problems  for  himself.  His 
power  of  assimilating  learning  was  unusually  de- 
veloped ;  and  this,  combined  with  orderly  business 
habits,  made  him  a  most  effective  and  valuable 


374    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

assistant.  The  terms  of  his  employment  were  of 
the  first  importance  in  the  case.  Mr.  Litchfield 
of  New  York  was  the  patron  of  the  observatory ; 
he  had  given  the  trustees  of  Hamilton  College  a 
capital  for  its  support,  which  sufficed  to  pay  the 
small  salary  of  the  director  and  some  current  ex- 
penses, and  he  also,  when  the  latter  needed  an  as- 
sistant, made  provision  for  his  employment.  It 
appears  that,  in  the  case  of  Borst,  Peters  fre- 
quently paid  his  salary  for  considerable  periods  at 
a  time,  which  sums  were  afterward  reimbursed  to 
him  by  Mr.  Litchfield. 

I  shall  endeavor  to  state  the  most  essential  facts 
involved  as  they  appear  from  a  combination  of  the 
sometimes  widely  different  claims  of  the  two  par- 
ties, with  the  hope  of  showing  fairly  what  they 
were,  but  without  expecting  to  satisfy  a  partisan 
of  either  side.  Where  an  important  difference  of 
statement  is  irreconcilable,  I  shall  point  it  out. 

In  his  observations  of  asteroids  Peters  was  con- 
tinually obliged  to  search  through  the  pages  of 
astronomical  literature  to  find  whether  the  stars  he 
was  using  in  observation  had  ever  been  catalogued. 
He  long  thought  that  it  would  be  a  good  piece  of 
work  to  search  all  the  astronomical  journals  and 
miscellaneous  collections  of  observations  with  a 
view  of  making  a  complete  catalogue  of  the  posi- 
tions of  the  thousands  of  stars  which  they  con- 
tained, and  publishing  it  in  a  single  volume  for  the 
use  of  astronomers  situated  as  he  was.  The  work 
of  doing  this  was  little  more  than  one  of  routine 


MISCELLANEA  375 

search  and  calculation,  which  any  well-trained 
youth  could  take  up ;  but  it  was  naturally  quite 
without  the  power  of  Peters  to  carry  it  through 
with  his  own  hand.  He  had  employed  at  least  one 
former  assistant  on  the  work,  Professor  John  G. 
Porter,  but  very  little  progress  was  made.  Now, 
however,  he  had  a  man  with  the  persistence  and 
working  capacity  necessary  to  carry  out  the  plan. 

There  was  an  irreconcilable  difference  between 
the  two  parties  as  to  the  terms  on  which  Borst 
went  to  work.  According  to  the  latter,  Peters 
suggested  to  him  the  credit  which  a  young  man 
would  gain  as  one  of  the  motives  for  taking  up  the 
job.  But  plaintiff  denied  that  he  had  done  any- 
thing more  than  order  him  to  do  it.  He  did  not, 
however,  make  it  clear  why  an  assistant  at  the 
Litchfield  Observatory  should  be  officially  ordered 
to  do  a  piece  of  work  for  the  use  of  astronomy 
generally,  and  having  no  special  connection  with 
the  Litchfield  Observatory. 

However  this  may  be,  Borst  went  vigorously  to 
work,  repeating  all  the  calculations  which  had  been 
made  by  Peters  and  former  assistants,  with  a  view 
of  detecting  errors,  and  took  the  work  home  with 
him  in  order  that  his  sisters  might  make  a  great 
mass  of  supplementary  calculations  which,  though 
not  involved  in  the  original  plan,  would  be  very 
conducive  to  the  usefulness  of  the  result.  One  or 
two  of  these  bright  young  ladies  worked  for  about 
a  year  at  the  job.  How  far  Peters  was  privy  to 
what  they  did  was  not  clear ;  according  to  his 


376    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

claim  he  did  not  authorize  their  employment  to  do 
anything  but  copy  the  catalogue. 

By  the  joint  efforts  of  the  assistant  and  his  two 
sisters,  working  mostly  or  entirely  at  their  own 
home,  the  work  was  brought  substantially  to  a  con- 
clusion about  the  beginning  of  1888.  Borst  then 
reported  the  completion  to  his  chief  and  submitted 
a  proposed  title-page,  which  represented  that  the 
work  was  performed  by  Charles  A.  Borst  under 
the  direction  of  Christian  H.  F.  Peters,  Professor 
of  Astronomy,  etc.  According  to  Borst' s  account, 
Peters  tore  up  the  paper,  opened  the  stove  door, 
put  the  fragments  into  the  fire,  and  then  turned 
on  the  assistant  with  the  simple  order,  "  Bring  me 
the  catalogue !  " 

This  was  refused,  and  a  suit  in  replevin  was  im- 
mediately instituted  by  Peters.  The  ablest  counsel 
were  engaged  on  both  sides.  That  of  the  plaintiff 
was  Mr.  Elihu  Root,  of  New  York,  afterward  Secre- 
tary of  War,  one  of  the  leading  members  of  the 
New  York  bar,  and  well  known  as  an  active  mem- 
ber of  the  reform  branch  of  the  Republican  party 
of  that  city.  For  the  defendant  was  the  law  firm 
of  an  ex-senator  of  the  United  States,  the  Messrs. 
Kernan  of  Utica. 

I  think  the  taking  of  evidence  and  the  hearing 
of  arguments  occupied  more  than  a  week.  One 
claim  of  the  defendant  would,  if  accepted,  have 
brought  the  suit  to  a  speedy  end.  Peters  was  an 
employee  of  the  corporation  of  Hamilton  College, 
and  by  the  terms  of  his  appointment  all  his  work 


MISCELLANEA  377 

at  the  Litchfield  Observatory  belonged  to  that  in- 
stitution. Borst  was  summoned  into  the  case  as 
an  official  employee  of  the  Litchfield  Observatory. 
Therefore  the  corporation  of  the  college  was  the 
only  authority  which  had  power  to  bring  the  suit. 
But  this  point  was  disposed  of  by  a  decision  of 
the  judge  that  it  was  not  reasonable,  in  view  of 
the  low  salary  received  by  the  plaintiff,  to  deprive 
him  of  the  right  to  the  creations  of  his  own  talent. 
He  did  not,  however,  apply  this  principle  of  legal 
interpretation  to  the  case  of  the  defendant,  and  not 
only  found  for  the  plaintiff,  but  awarded  damages 
based  on  the  supposed  value  of  the  work,  includ- 
ing, if  I  understand  the  case  aright,  the  value  of 
the  work  done  by  the  young  ladies.  It  would  seem, 
however,  that  in  officially  perfecting  the  details  of 
his  decision  he  left  it  a  little  indefinite  as  to  what 
papers  the  plaintiff  was  entitled  to,  it  being  very 
difficult  to  describe  in  detail  papers  many  of  which 
he  had  never  seen.  Altogether  it  may  be  feared 
that  the  decision  treated  the  catalogue  much  as  the 
infant  was  treated  by  the  decision  of  Solomon. 

However  this  might  be,  the  decision  completely 
denied  any  right  of  the  defendant  in  the  work. 
This  feature  of  it  I  thought  very  unjust,  and  pub- 
lished in  a  Utica  paper  a  review  of  the  case  in  terms 
not  quite  so  judicial  as  I  ought  to  have  chosen.  I 
should  have  thought  such  a  criticism  quite  a  breach 
of  propriety,  and  therefore  would  never  have  ven- 
tured upon  it  but  for  an  eminent  example  then  fresh 
in  my  mind. 


378    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

Shortly  after  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  uttered  its  celebrated  decision  upholding  the 
constitutionality  of  the  Legal  Tender  Act,  I  hap- 
pened to  be  conversing  at  an  afternoon  reception 
with  one  of  the  judges,  Gray,  who  had  sustained 
the  decision.  Mr.  George  Bancroft,  the  historian, 
stepped  up,  and  quite  surprised  me  by  expressing 
to  the  judge  in  quite  vigorous  language  his  strong 
dissent  from  the  decision.  He  soon  afterward  pub- 
lished a  pamphlet  reviewing  it  adversely.  I  supposed 
that  what  Mr.  Bancroft  might  do  with  a  decision  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  a  humbler 
individual  might  be  allowed  to  do  with  the  decision 
of  a  local  New  York  judge. 

The  defense  appealed  the  case  to  a  higher  court 
of  three  judges,  where  the  finding  of  the  lower 
court  was  sustained  by  a  majority  of  two  to  one. 
It  was  then  carried  to  the  Court  of  Appeals,  the 
highest  in  the  State.  Here  the  decision  was  set 
aside  on  what  seemed  to  me  the  common  sense 
ground  that  the  court  had  ignored  the  rights  of 
the  defendant  in  the  case,  who  certainly  had  some, 
and  it  must  therefore  be  remanded  for  a  new  trial. 

Meantime  Peters  had  died  ;  and  it  is  painful  to 
think  that  his  death  may  have  been  accelerated 
by  the  annoyances  growing  out  of  the  suit.  One 
morning,  in  the  summer  of  1890,  he  was  found 
dead  on  the  steps  of  his  little  dwelling,  having  ap- 
parently fallen  in  a  fit  of  apoplexy  or  heart  failure 
as  he  was  on  his  way  to  the  observatory  the  night 
before.  His  heirs  had  no  possible  object  in  push- 


MISCELLANEA  379 

ing  the  suit  ;  probably  his  entire  little  fortune  was 
absorbed  in  the  attendant  expenses. 

When  the  difference  with  Borst  was  first  heard  of 
it  was,  I  think,  proposed  to  Peters  by  several  of  his 
friends,  including  myself,  that  the  matter  should  be 
submitted  to  an  arbitration  of  astronomers.  But 
he  would  listen  to  nothing  of  the  sort.  He  was 
determined  to  enforce  his  legal  rights  by  legal 
measures.  A  court  of  law  was,  in  such  a  case,  at 
an  enormous  disadvantage,  as  compared  with  an 
astronomical  board  of  arbitration.  To  the  latter  all 
the  circumstances  would  have  been  familiar  and 
simple,  while  the  voluminous  evidence,  elucidated 
as  it  was  by  the  arguments  of  counsel  on  the  two 
sides,  failed  to  completely  enlighten  the  court  on 
the  points  at  issue.  One  circumstance  will  illustrate 
this.  Some  allusion  was  made  during  the  trial  to 
Peters' s  work  while  he  was  abroad,  in  investigating 
the  various  manuscripts  of  the  Almagest  of  Ptolemy 
and  preparing  a  commentary  and  revised  edition  of 
Ptolemy's  Catalogue  of  Stars.  This  would  have 
been  an  extremely  important  and  original  work, 
most  valuable  in  the  history  of  ancient  astronomy. 
But  the  judge  got  it  mixed  up  in  his  mind  with  the 
work  before  the  court,  and  actually  supposed  that 
Peters  spent  his  time  in  Europe  in  searching  ancient 
manuscripts  to  get  material  for  the  catalogue  in 
question.  He  also  attributed  great  importance  to 
the  conception  of  the  catalogue,  forgetting  that,  to 
use  the  simile  of  a  writer  in  the  "  New  York  Even- 
ing Post,"  such  a  conception  was  of  no  more  value 


380    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

than  the  conception  of  a  railroad  from  one  town  to 
another  by  a  man  who  had  no  capital  to  build  it. 
No  original  investigation  was  required  on  one  side 
or  the  other.  It  was  simply  a  huge  piece  of  work 
done  by  a  young  man  with  help  from  his  sisters, 
suggested  by  Peters,  and  now  and  then  revised  by 
him  in  its  details.  It  seemed  to  me  that  the  solution 
offered  by  Borst  was  eminently  proper,  and  I  was 
willing  to  say  so,  probably  at  the  expense  of  Peters' s 
friendship,  on  which  I  set  a  high  value. 

I  have  always  regarded  the  work  on  Ptolemy's 
catalogue  of  stars,  to  which  allusion  has  just  been 
made,  as  the  most  important  Peters  ever  under- 
took. It  comprised  a  critical  examination  and  com- 
parison of  all  the  manuscripts  of  the  Almagest  in 
the  libraries  of  Europe,  or  elsewhere,  whether  in 
Arabic  or  other  languages,  with  a  view  of  learning 
what  light  might  be  thrown  on  the  doubtful  ques- 
tions growing  out  of  Ptolemy's  work.  At  the 
Litchfield  Observatory  I  had  an  opportunity  of  ex- 
amining the  work,  especially  the  extended  commen- 
taries on  special  points,  and  was  so  impressed  by 
the  learning  shown  in  the  research  as  to  express  a 
desire  for  its  speedy  completion  and  publication. 
In  fact,  Peters  had  already  made  one  or  more  com- 
munications to  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences 
on  the  subject,  which  were  supposed  to  be  equiva- 
lent to  presenting  the  work  to  the  academy  for 
publication.  But  before  the  academy  put  in  any 
claim  for  the  manuscript,  Mr.  E.  B.  Knobel  of  Lon- 


MISCELLANEA  381 

don,  a  well-known  member  of  the  Royal  Astrono- 
mical Society,  wrote  to  Peters's  executors,  stating 
that  he  was  a  collaborator  with  Peters  in  preparing 
the  work,  and  as  such  had  a  claim  to  it,  and  wished 
to  complete  it.  He  therefore  asked  that  the  papers 
should  be  sent  to  him.  This  was  done,  but  during 
the  twelve  years  which  have  since  elapsed,  nothing 
more  has  been  heard  of  the  work.  No  one,  so  far 
as  I  know,  ever  heard  of  Peters's  making  any  allu- 
sion to  Mr.  Knobel  or  any  other  collaborator.  He 
seems  to  have  always  spoken  of  the  work  as  exclu- 
sively his  own. 

Among  the  psychological  phenomena  I  have  wit- 
nessed, none  has  appeared  to  me  more  curious  than 
a  susceptibility  of  certain  minds  to  become  imbued 
with  a  violent  antipathy  to  the  theory  of  gravita- 
tion. The  anti-gravitation  crank,  as  he  is  commonly 
called,  is  a  regular  part  of  the  astronomer's  expe- 
rience. He  is,  however,  only  one  of  a  large  and 
varied  class  who  occupy  themselves  with  what  an 
architect  might  consider  the  drawing  up  of  plans 
and  specifications  for  a  universe.  This  is,  no 
doubt,  quite  a  harmless  occupation ;  but  the  queer 
part  of  it  is  the  seeming  belief  of  the  architects 
that  the  actual  universe  has  been  built  on  their 
plans,  and  runs  according  to  the  laws  which  they 
prescribe  for  it.  Ether,  atoms,  and  nebulae  are  the 
raw  material  of  their  trade.  Men  of  otherwise 
sound  intellect,  even  college  graduates  and  lawyers, 
sometimes  engage  in  this  business.  I  have  often 


382    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

wondered  whether  any  of  these  men  proved  that, 
in  all  the  common  schools  of  New  York,  the  power 
which  conjugates  the  verbs  comes,  through  some 
invisible  conduit  in  the  earth,  from  the  falls  of 
Niagara.  This  would  be  quite  like  many  of  the 
theories  propounded. 

Babbage's  "  Budget  of  Paradoxes  "  is  a  goodly 
volume  descriptive  of  efforts  of  this  sort.  It  was 
supplemented  a  year  or  two  ago  by  a  most  excellent 
and  readable  article  on  eccentric  literature,  by  Mr. 
John  Fiske,  which  appeared  in  the  "  Atlantic 
Monthly."  Here  the  author  discussed  the  subject 
so  well  that  I  do  not  feel  like  saying  much  about 
it,  beyond  giving  a  little  of  my  own  experience. 

Naturally  the  Smithsonian  Institution  was,  and  I 
presume  still  is,  the  great  authority  to  which  these 
men  send  their  productions.  It  was  generally  a 
rule  of  Professor  Henry  always  to  notice  these  com- 
munications and  try  to  convince  the  correspondents 
of  their  fallacies.  Many  of  the  papers  were  re- 
ferred to  me ;  but  a  little  experience  showed  that  it 
was  absolutely  useless  to  explain  anything  to  these 
"  paradoxers."  Generally  their  first  communication 
was  exceedingly  modest  in  style,  being  evidently 
designed  to  lead  on  the  unwary  person  to  whom  it 
was  addressed.  Moved  to  sympathy  with  so  well- 
meaning  but  erring  an  inquirer,  I  would  point  out 
wherein  his  reasoning  was  deficient  or  his  facts  at 
fault.  Back  would  come  a  thunderbolt  demonstrat- 
ing my  incapacity  to  deal  with  the  subject  in  terms 
so  strong  that  I  could  not  have  another  word  to 
say. 


MISCELLANEA  383 

The  American  Association  for  the  Advancement 
of  Science  was  another  attraction  for  such  men. 
About  thirty  years  ago  there  appeared  at  one  of  its 
meetings  a  man  from  New  Jersey  who  was  as  much 
incensed  against  the  theory  of  gravitation  as  if  it 
had  been  the  source  of  all  human  woe.  He  got  ad- 
mission to  the  meetings,  as  almost  any  one  can,  but 
the  paper  he  proposed  to  read  was  refused  by  the 
committee.  He  watched  his  chance,  however,  and 
when  discussion  on  some  paper  was  invited,  he  got 
up  and  began  with  the  words,  "  It  seems  to  me  that 
the  astronomers  of  the  present  day  have  gravitation 
on  the  brain."  This  was  the  beginning  of  an  impas- 
sioned oration  which  went  on  in  an  unbroken  tor- 
rent until  he  was  put  down  by  a  call  for  the  next 
paper.  But  he  got  his  chance  at  last.  A  meeting 
of  Section  Q  was  called ;  what  this  section  was  the 
older  members  will  recall  and  the  reader  may  be 
left  to  guess.  A  programme  of  papers  had  been 
prepared,  and  on  it  appeared  Mr.  Joseph  Treat,  on 
Gravitation.  Mr.  Treat  got  up  with  great  alacrity, 
and,  amid  the  astonishment  and  laughter  of  all  pro- 
ceeded to  read  his  paper  with  the  utmost  seriousness. 

I  remember  a  visit  from  one  of  these  men  with 
great  satisfaction,  because,  apparently,  he  was  an 
exception  to  the  rule  in  being  amenable  to  reason. 
I  was  sitting  in  my  office  one  morning  when  a 
modest-looking  gentleman  opened  the  door  and 
looked  in. 

"  I  would  like  to  see  Professor  Newcomb." 

"  Well,  here  he  is." 


384    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

"  You  Professor  Newcomb  ?  " 

"Yes." 

"  Professor,  I  have  called  to  tell  you  that  I  don't 
believe  in  Sir  Isaac  Newton's  theory  of  gravita- 
tion ! " 

"  Don't  believe  in  gravitation  !  Suppose  you 
jump  out  of  that  window  and  see  whether  there  is 
any  gravitation  or  not." 

"  But  I  don't  mean  that.     I  mean  " — 

"  But  that  is  all  there  is  in  the  theory  of  gravi- 
tation ;  if  you  jump  out  of  the  window  you  '11  fall 
to  the  ground." 

"  I  don't  mean  that.  What  I  mean  is  I  don't 
believe  in  the  Newtonian  theory  that  gravitation 
goes  up  to  the  moon.  It  does  n't  extend  above  the 


air." 


"  Have  you  ever  been  up  there  to  see  ?  " 

There  was  an  embarrassing  pause,  during  which 
the  visitor  began  to  look  a  little  sheepish. 

"  N-no-o,"  he  at  length  replied. 

"  Well,  I  have  n't  been  there  either,  and  until  one 
of  us  can  get  up  there  to  try  the  experiment,  I 
don't  believe  we  shall  ever  agree  on  the  subject." 

He  took  his  leave  without  another  word. 

The  idea  that  the  facts  of  nature  are  to  be 
brought  out  by  observation  is  one  which  is  singu- 
larly foreign  not  only  to  people  of  this  class,  but 
even  to  many  sensible  men.  When  the  great  comet 
of  1882  was  discovered  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
sun,  the  fact  was  telegraphed  that  it  might  be  seen 
with  the  naked  eye,  even  in  the  sun's  neighbor- 


MISCELLANEA  385 

hood.  A  news  reporter  came  to  my  office  with  this 
statement,  and  wanted  to  know  if  it  was  really  true 
that  a  comet  could  be  seen  with  the  naked  eye  right 
alongside  the  sun. 

"I  don't  know,"  I  replied ;  "  suppose  you  go  out 
and  look  for  yourself ;  that  is  the  best  way  to  settle 
the  question." 

The  idea  seemed  to  him  to  be  equally  amusing 
and  strange,  and  on  the  basis  of  that  and  a  few 
other  insipid  remarks,  he  got  up  an  interview  for 
the  "  National  Republican  "  of  about  a  column  in 
length. 

I  think  there  still  exists  somewhere  in  the  North- 
west a  communistic  society  presided  over  by  a  genius 
whose  official  name  is  Koresh,  and  of  which  the  reli- 
gious creed  has  quite  a  scientific  turn.  Its  funda- 
mental doctrine  is  that  the  surface  of  the  earth  on 
which  we  live  is  the  inside  of  a  hollow  sphere,  and 
therefore  concave,  instead  of  convex,  as  generally 
supposed.  The  oddest  feature  of  the  dqctrine  is 
that  Koresh  professes  to  have  proved  it  by  a  method 
which,  so  far  as  the  geometry  of  it  goes,  is  more 
rigorous  than  any  other  that  science  has  ever  ap- 
plied. The  usual  argument  by  which  we  prove  to 
our  children  the  earth's  rotundity  is  not  purely 
geometric.  When,  standing  on  the  seashore,  we 
see  the  sails  of  a  ship  on  the  sea  horizon,  her  hull 
being  hidden  because  it  is  below,  the  inference 
that  this  is  due  to  the  convexity  of  the  surface  is 
based  on  the  idea  that  light  moves  in  a  straight 
line.  If  a  ray  of  light  is  curved  toward  the  sur- 


386    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

face,  we  should  have  the  same  appearance,  although 
the  earth  might  be  perfectly  flat.  So  the  Koresh 
people  professed  to  have  determined  the  figure  of 
the  earth's  surface  by  the  purely  geometric  method 
of  taking  long,  broad  planks,  perfectly  squared  at 
the  two  ends,  and  using  them  as  a  geodicist  uses 
his  base  apparatus.  They  were  mounted  on  wooden 
supports  and  placed  end  to  end,  so  as  to  join  per- 
fectly. Then,  geometrically,  the  two  would  be  in  a 
straight  line.  Then  the  first  plank  was  picked  up, 
carried  forward,  and  its  end  so  placed  against  that 
of  the  second  as  to  fit  perfectly ;  thus  the  continu- 
ation of  a  straight  line  was  assured.  So  the  opera- 
tion was  repeated  by  continually  alternating  the 
planks.  Recognizing  the  fact  that  the  ends  might 
not  be  perfectly  square,  the  planks  were  turned 
upside  down  in  alternate  settings,  so  that  any  de- 
fect of  this  sort  would  be  neutralized.  The  result 
was  that,  after  they  had  measured  along  a  mile  or 
two,  the.  plank  was  found  to  be  gradually  approach- 
ing the  sea  sand  until  it  touched  the  ground. 

This  quasi-geometric  proof  was  to  the  mind  of 
Koresh  positive.  A  horizontal  straight  line  con- 
tinued does  not  leave  the  earth's  surface,  but  grad- 
ually approaches  it.  It  does  not  seem  that  the 
measurers  were  psychologists  enough  to  guard 
against  the  effect  of  preconceived  notions  in  the 
process  of  applying  their  method. 

It  is  rather  odd  that  pure  geometry  has  its  full 
share  of  paradoxers.  Runkle's  "  Mathematical 
Monthly  "  received  a  very  fine  octavo  volume,  the 


MISCELLANEA  387 

printing  of  which  must  have  been  expensive,  by 
Mr.  James  Smith,  a  respectable  merchant  of  Liver- 
pool. This  gentleman  maintained  that  the  circum- 
ference of  a  circle  was  exactly  3V5  times  its  diam- 
eter. He  had  pestered  the  British  Association 
with  his  theory,  and  come  into  collision  with  an 
eminent  mathematician  whose  name  he  did  not 
give,  but  who  was  very  likely  Professor  DeMor- 
gan.  The  latter  undertook  the  desperate  task  of 
explaining  to  Mr.  Smith  his  error,  but  the  other 
evaded  him  at  every  point,  much  as  a  supple  lad 
might  avoid  the  blows  of  a  prize-fighter.  As  in 
many  cases  of  this  kind,  the  reasoning  was  envel- 
oped in  a  mass  of  verbiage  which  it  was  very  diffi- 
cult to  strip  off  so  as  to  see  the  real  framework 
of  the  logic.  When  this  was  done,  the  syllogism 
would  be  found  to  take  this  very  simple  form :  — 

The  ratio  of  the  circumference  to  the  diameter 
is  the  same  in  all  circles.  Now,  take  a  diameter 
of  1  and  draw  round  it  a  circumference  of  SVs-  In 
that  circle  the  ratio  is  3>l/5 ;  therefore,  by  the  major 
premise,  that  is  the  ratio  for  all  circles. 

The  three  famous  problems  of  antiquity,  the 
duplication  of  the  cube,  the  quadrature  of  the  cir- 
cle, and  the  trisection  of  the  angle,  have  all  been 
proved  by  modern  mathematics  to  be  insoluble  by 
the  rule  and  compass,  which  are  the  instruments 
assumed  in  the  postulates  of  Euclid.  Yet  the 
problem  of  the  trisection  is  frequently  attacked  by 
men  of  some  mathematical  education.  I  think  it 
was  about  1870  that  I  received  from  Professor 


388    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

Henry  a  communication  coming  from  some  institu- 
tion of  learning  in  Louisiana  or  Texas.  The  writer 
was  sure  he  had  solved  the  problem,  and  asked  that 
it  might  receive  the  prize  supposed  to  be  awarded 
by  governments  for  the  solution.  The  construc- 
tion was  very  complicated,  arid  I  went  over  the  whole 
demonstration  without  being  able  at  first  to  detect 
any  error.  So  it  was  necessary  to  examine  it  yet 
more  completely  and  take  it  up  point  by  point. 
At  length  I  found  the  fallacy  to  be  that  three  lines 
which,  as  drawn,  intersected  in  what  was  to  the 
eye  the  same  point  on  the  paper,  were  assumed  to 
intersect  mathematically  in  one  and  the  same  point. 
Except  for  the  complexity  of  the  work,  the  sup- 
posed construction  would  have  been  worthy  of 
preservation. 

Some  years  later  I  received,  from  a  teacher,  I 
think,  a  supposed  construction,  with  the  state- 
ment that  he  had  gone  over  it  very  carefully  and 
could  find  no  error.  He  therefore  requested  me  to 
examine  it  and  see  whether  there  was  anything 
wrong.  I  told  him  in  reply  that  his  work  showed 
that  he  was  quite  capable  of  appreciating  a  geo- 
metric demonstration ;  that  there  was  surely  some- 
thing wrong  in  it,  because  the  problem  was  known 
to  be  insoluble,  and  I  would  like  him  to  try  again 
to  see  if  he  could  not  find  his  error.  As  I  never 
again  heard  from  him,  I  suppose  he  succeeded. 

One  of  the  most  curious  of  these  cases  was  that 
of  a  student,  I  am  not  sure  but  a  graduate,  of  the 
University  of  Virginia,  who  claimed  that  geometers 


MISCELLANEA  389 

were  in  error  in  assuming  that  a  line  had  no  thick- 
ness. He  published  a  school  geometry  based  on 
his  views,  which  received  the  endorsement  of  a 
well-known  New  York  school  official  and,  on  the 
basis  of  this,  was  actually  endorsed,  or  came  very 
near  being  endorsed,  as  a  text-book  in  the  public 
schools  of  New  York. 

From  my  correspondence,  I  judge  that  every 
civilized  country  has  its  share  of  these  paradoxers. 
I  am  almost  constantly  in  receipt  of  letters  not 
only  from  America,  but  from  Europe  and  Asia, 
setting  forth  their  views.  The  following  are  a  few 
of  these  productions  which  arrived  in  the  course 
of  a  single  season. 

BALTIMORE,  Sept.  29, 1897. 
104  Collington  Ave. 

PROF.  SIMON  NEWCOMB: 

Dear  Sir,  —  Though  a  stranger  to  you,  Sir,  I  take 
the  liberty  to  enlist  your  interest  in  a  Cause,  —  so  grand, 
so  beautiful,  as  to  eclipse  anything  ever  presented  to  the 
highest  tribunal  of  human  intellect  and  intuition. 

Trusting  you  to  be  of  liberal  mind,  Sir,  I  have  mailed 
you  specimen  copy  of  the  "  Banner  of  Light,"  which  will 
prove  somewhat  explanatory  of  my  previous  remarks. 

Being  a  student  of  Nature  and  her  wonderful  laws, 
as  they  operate  in  that  subtle  realm  of  human  life, — 
the  soul,  for  some  years,  I  feel  well  prepared  to  answer 
inquiries  pertaining  to  this  almost  unknown  field  of  sci- 
entific research,  and  would  do  so  with  much  pleasure,  as 
I  am  desirous  to  contribute  my  mite  to  the  enlightenment 
of  mankind  upon  this  most  important  of  all  subjects. 
Yours  very  truly, 

P.  S.  —  Would  be  pleased  to  hear  from  you,  Sir. 


390    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

MEXICO,  16  Oct.  1897. 

DEAR  SIR,  —  I  beg  to  inform  you  that  I  have  for- 
warded by  to  days  mail  to  your  adress  a  copy  of  my  20th 
Century  planetary  spectacle  with  a  clipping  of  a  german 
newspaper  here.  Thirty  hours  for  3000  years  is  to  day 
better  accepted  than  it  was  6  years  ago  when  I  wrote  it,  al- 
though it  called  even  then  for  some  newspaper  comment, 
especially  after  President  Cleveland's  election,  whose  like- 
ness has  been  recognized  on  the  back  cover,  so  has  been 
my  comet,  which  was  duly  anounced  by  an  Italian  astro- 
nomer 48  hours  before  said  election.  A  hint  of  Jupiters 
fifth  satelite  and  Mars  satelites  is  also  to  be  found  in  my 
planetary  spectacle  but  the  most  striking  feature  of  such 
a  profetic  play  is  undoubtedly  the  Allegory  of  the  Paris 
fire  my  entire  Mercury  scene  and  next  to  it  is  the  Mars 
scene  with  the  wholesale  retreat  of  the  greecs  that  is  just 
now  puzzling  some  advanced  minds.  Of  cours  the  mu- 
sical satelites  represent  at  the  same  time  the  european 
concert  with  the  disgusted  half uroons  face  in  one  corner 
and  Egypt  next  to  it  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
world  is  now  about  getting  ready  to  applaud  such  a  grand 
realistic  play  on  the  stage  after  even  the  school  children 
of  Chicago  adopted  a  great  part  of  my  moral  scuol-club 
(act  II)  as  I  see  from  the  Times  Herald  Oct.  3d.  and 
they  did  certainly  better  than  the  Mars  Fools  did  in 
N.  Y.  4  years  ago  with  that  Dire  play,  A  trip  to  Mars. 
The  only  question  now  is  to  find  an  enterprising  scientist 
to  not  only  recomend  my  play  but  put  some  1500$  up 
for  to  stage  it  at  once  perhaps  you  would  be  able  to  do 
so. 

Yours  truly 

G.  A.  KASTELIC,  Hotel  Buenavista. 

In  the  following  Dr.  Diaforus  of  the  Malade 
Imaginaire  seems  to  have  a  formidable  rival. 


MISCELLANEA  391 

CHICAGO,  Oct.  31,  1897. 

ME.  NEWCOMBE  : 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  forwarded  you  photographs  of  several 
designs  which  demonstrate  by  illustrations  in  physics, 
metaphysics,  phrenology,  mechanics,  Theology,  Law 
magnetism  Astronomy  etc  —  the  only  true  form  and 
principles  of  universal  government,  and  the  greatest  life 
sustaining  forces  in  this  universe,  I  would  like  to  explain 
to  you  and  to  some  of  the  expert  government  detectives 
every  thing  in  connection  with  those  illustrations  since 
1881 ;  I  have  traveled  over  this  continent ;  for  many 
years  I  have  been  persecuted,  my  object  in  sending  you 
those  illustrations  is  to  see  if  you  could  influence  some 
Journalist  in  this  City,  or  in  Washington  to  illustrate 
and  write  up  the  interpretation  of  those  designs,  and 
present  them  to  the  public  through  the  press. 

You  know  that  very  few  men  can  grasp  or  compre- 
hend in  what  relation  a  plumb  line  stands  to  the  sciences, 
or  to  the  nations  of  this  earth,  at  the  present  time,  by 
giving  the  correct  interpretation  of  Christian,  Hebrew, 
&  Mohammedian  prophesy,  this  work  presents  a  system 
of  international  law  which  is  destined  to  create  harmony 
peace  and  prosperity. 

sincerely  yours 


1035  Monadnock  Bid 

Chicago  111 
C/o  L.  L.  SMITH. 

P.  S.  The  very  law  that  moulds  a  tear ;  and  bids  it 
trickel  from  its  source ;  that  law  preserves  this  earth  a 
sphere,  and  guides  the  planets  in  their  course. 


392    THE   REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

OBD  NEB  Nove  18, 1897. 

PROFESSOR  SIMON  NEWCOMB 
Washington  D  C 

Dear  Sir,  —  As  your  labors  have  enabled  me  to  pro- 
tect my  honor  And  prove  the  Copernican  Newton  Keplar 
and  Gallileo  theories  false  I  solicit  transportation  to 
your  department  so  that  I  can  come  and  explain  the 
whole  of  Nature  and  so  enable  you  to  obtain  the  true 
value  of  the  Moon  from  both  latitudes  at  the  same 
instant. 

My  method  of  working  does  not  accord  with  yours 
Hence  will  require  more  time  to  comprehend  I  have 
asked  Professor  James  E  Keeler  to  examine  the  work 
and  forward  his  report  with  this  application  for  trans- 
portation 

Yours  truly 

One  day  in  July,  1895,  I  was  perplexed  by  the 
receipt  of  a  cable  dispatch  from  Paris  in  the  fol- 
lowing terms :  — 

Will  you  act  ?       Consult  Gould.        Furber. 

The  dispatch  was  accompanied  by  the  statement 
that  an  immediate  answer  was  requested  and  pre- 
paid. Dr.  Gould  being  in  Cambridge,  and  I  in 
Washington,  it  was  not  possible  to  consult  him 
immediately  as  to  what  was  meant.  After  consul- 
tation with  an  official  of  the  Coast  Survey,  I  reached 
the  conclusion  that  the  request  had  something  to 
do  with  the  International  Metric  Commission,  of 
which  Dr.  Gould  was  a  member,  and  that  I  was 
desired  to  act  on  some  committee.  As  there  could 
be  no  doubt  of  my  willingness  to  do  this,  I  returned 


MISCELLANEA  393 

an  affirmative  answer,  and  wrote  to  Dr.  Gould  to 
know  exactly  what  was  required.  Great  was  my 
surprise  to  receive  an  answer  stating  that  he  knew 
nothing  of  the  subject,  and  could  not  imagine 
what  was  meant.  The  mystery  was  dispelled  a 
few  days  later  by  a  visit  from  Dr.  E.  R.  L.  Gould, 
the  well-known  professor  of  economics,  who  soon 
after  extended  his  activities  into  the  more  practical 
line  of  the  presidency  of  the  Suburban  Homes  and 
Improvement  Company  of  New  York.  He  had  just 
arrived  from  Paris,  where  a  movement  was  on  foot 
to  induce  the  French  government  to  make  such 
modifications  in  the  regulations  governing  the  in- 
struction and  the  degrees  at  the  French  univer- 
sities as  would  make  them  more  attractive  to 
American  students,  who  had  hitherto  frequented 
the  German  universities  to  the  almost  entire  exclu- 
sion of  those  of  France.  It  was  desired  by  the 
movers  in  the  affair  to  organize  an  American  com- 
mittee to  act  with  one  already  formed  at  Paris  ;  and 
it  was  desired  that  I  should  undertake  this  work. 

I  at  first  demurred  on  two  grounds.  I  could 
not  see  how,  with  propriety,  Americans  could  ap- 
pear as  petitioners  to  the  French  government  to 
modify  its  educational  system  for  their  benefit. 
Moreover,  I  did  not  want  to  take  any  position 
which  would  involve  me  in  an  effort  to  draw  Amer- 
ican students  from  the  German  universities. 

He  replied  that  neither  objection  could  be  urged 
in  the  case.  The  American  committee  would  act 
only  as  an  adviser  to  the  French  committee,  and 


394    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

its  sole  purpose  was  to  make  known  to  the  latter 
what  arrangements  as  regarded  studies,  examina- 
tions, and  degrees  would  be  best  adapted  to  meet 
the  views  and  satisfy  the  needs  of  American  stu- 
dents. There  was,  moreover,  no  desire  to  draw 
American  students  from  the  German  universities; 
it  was  only  desired  to  give  them  greater  facilities 
in  Paris. 

The  case  was  fortified  by  a  letter  from  M.  Michel 
Breal,  member  of  the  Institute  of  France,  and  head 
of  the  Franco- American  committee,  as  it  was  called 
in  Paris,  expressing  a  very  flattering  desire  that  I 
should  act. 

I  soon  gave  my  consent,  and  wrote  to  the  presi- 
dents of  eight  or  ten  of  our  leading  universities 
and  several  Washington  officials  interested  in  edu- 
cation, to  secure  their  adhesion.  With  a  single 
exception,  the  responses  were  unanimous  in  the 
affirmative,  and  I  think  the  exception  was  due  to  a 
misapprehension  of  the  objects  of  the  movement. 
The  views  of  all  the  adhering  Americans  were  then 
requested,  and  a  formal  meeting  was  held,  at  which 
they  were  put  into  shape.  It  is  quite  foreign  to 
my  present  object  to  go  into  details,  as  everything 
of  interest  in  connection  with  the  matter  will  be 
found  in  educational  journals.  One  point  may, 
however,  be  mentioned.  The  French  committee 
was  assured  that  whatever  system  of  instruction  and 
of  degrees  was  offered,  it  must  be  one  in  which 
no  distinction  was  made  between  French  and  for- 
eigners. American  students  would  not  strive  for 


MISCELLANEA  395 

a  degree  which  was  especially  arranged  for  them 
alone. 

I  soon  found  that  the  movement  was  a  much 
more  complex  one  than  it  appeared  at  first  sight, 
and  that  all  the  parties  interested  in  Paris  did  not 
helong  to  one  and  the  same  committee.  Not  long 
after  we  had  put  our  suggestions  into  shape,  I  was 
gratified  by  a  visit  from  Dom  de  la  Tremblay, 
prior  of  the  Benedictine  Convent  of  Santa  Maria, 
in  Paris,  a  most  philanthropic  and  attractive  gen- 
tleman, who  desired  to  promote  the  object  by  es- 
tablishing a  home  for  the  American  students  when 
they  should  come.  Knowing  the  temptations  to 
which  visiting  youth  would  be  exposed,  he  was 
desirous  of  founding  an  establishment  where  they 
could  live  in  the  best  and  most  attractive  surround- 
ings. He  confidently  hoped  to  receive  the  active 
support  of  men  of  wealth  in  this  country  in  carry- 
ing out  his  object. 

It  was  a  somewhat  difficult  and  delicate  matter 
to  explain  to  the  philanthropic  gentleman  that 
American  students  were  not  likely  to  collect  in  a 
home  specially  provided  for  them,  but  would  prefer 
to  find  their  own  home  in  their  own  way.  I  tried 
to  do  it  with  as  little  throwing  of  cold  water  as 
was  possible,  but,  I  fear,  succeeded  only  gradually. 
But  after  two  or  three  visits  to  New  York  and 
Washington,  it  became  evident  to  him  that  the 
funds  necessary  for  his  plan  could  not  be  raised. 

The  inception  of  the  affair  was  still  not  clear  to 
me.  I  learned  it  in  Paris  the  year  following.  Then 


396    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

I  found  that  the  movement  was  started  by  Mr. 
Furber,  the  sender  of  the  telegram,  a  citizen  of 
Chicago,  who  had  scarcely  attained  the  prime  of 
life,  but  was  gifted  with  that  indomitable  spirit  of 
enterprise  which  characterizes  the  metropolis  of  the 
West.  What  he  saw  of  the  educational  institu- 
tions of  Paris  imbued  him  with  a  high  sense  of  their 
value,  and  he  was  desirous  that  his  fellow-country- 
men should  share  in  the  advantages  which  they 
offered.  To  induce  them  to  do  this,  it  was  only 
necessary  that  some  changes  should  be  made  in 
the  degrees  and  in  the  examinations,  the  latter 
being  too  numerous  and  the  degrees  bearing  no 
resemblance  to  those  of  Germany  and  the  United 
States.  He  therefore  addressed  a  memorial  to  the 
Minister  of  Public  Instruction,  who  was  much  im- 
pressed by  the  view  of  the  case  presented  to  him, 
and  actively  favored  the  formation  of  a  Franco- 
American  committee  to  carry  out  the  object. 
Everything  was  gotten  ready  for  action,  and  it  only 
remained  that  the  prime  mover  should  submit  evi- 
dence that  educators  in  America  desired  the  pro- 
posed change,  and  make  known  what  was  wanted. 
Why  I  should  have  been  selected  to  do  this  I  do 
not  know,  but  suppose  it  may  have  been  because  I 
had  just  been  elected  a  foreign  associate  of  the  In- 
stitute, and  was  free  from  trammels  which  might 
have  hindered  the  action  of  men  who  held  official 
positions  in  the  government  or  at  the  heads  of  uni- 
versities. The  final  outcome  of  the  affair  was  the 
establishment  in  the  universities  of  France  of  the 


MISCELLANEA  397 

degree  of  Doctor  of  the  University,  which  might  be 
given  either  in  letters  or  in  science,  and  which  was 
expected  to  correspond  as  nearly  as  possible  to  the 
degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy  in  Germany  and 
America. 

One  feature  of  the  case  was  brought  out  which 
may  be  worthy  of  attention  from  educators.  In  a 
general  way  it  may  be  said  that  our  Bachelor's  de- 
gree does  not  correspond  to  any  well-defined  stage 
of  education,  implying,  as  it  does,  something  more 
than  that  foundation  of  a  general  liberal  education 
which  the  degree  implies  in  Europe,  and  not  quite 
so  much  as  the  Doctor's  degree.  I  found  it  very 
difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  make  our  French 
friends  understand  that  our  American  Bachelor's 
degree  was  something  materially  higher  than  the 
Baccalaureate  of  the  French  Lycee,  which  is  con- 
ferred at  the  end  of  a  course  midway  between  our 
high  school  and  our  college. 

From  education  at  the  Sorbonne  I  pass  to  the 
other  extreme.  During  a  stay  in  Harper's  Ferry  in 
the  autumn  of  1887,  I  had  an  object  lesson  in  the 
state  of  primary  education  in  the  mountain  regions 
of  the  South.  Accompanied  by  a  lady  friend,  who, 
like  myself,  was  fond  of  climbing  the  hills,  I  walked 
over  the  Loudon  heights  into  a  sequestered  valley, 
out  of  direct  communication  with  the  great  world. 
After  visiting  one  or  two  of  the  farmhouses,  we 
came  across  a  school  by  the  roadside.  It  was  the 
hour  of  recess,  and  the  teacher  was  taking  an  active 


398    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

part  in  promoting  the  games  in  which  the  children 
were  engaged.  It  was  suggested  by  one  of  us 
that  it  would  be  of  interest  to  see  the  methods  of 
this  school;  so  we  approached  the  teacher  on  the 
subject,  who  very  kindly  offered  to  call  his  pupils 
together  and  show  us  his  teaching. 

First,  however,  we  began  to  question  him  as-  to 
the  subjects  of  instruction.  The  curriculum  seemed 
rather  meagre,  as  he  went  over  it.  I  do  not  think 
it  went  beyond  the  three  R's. 

"  But  do  you  not  teach  grammar  as  well  as  read- 
ing?" I  asked. 

"  No,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  I  do  not.  I  did  want 
to  teach  grammar,  but  the  people  all  said  that  they 
had  not  been  taught  grammar,  and  had  got  along 
very  well  without  it,  and  did  not  see  why  the  time 
of  the  children  should  be  taken  up  by  it." 

"  If  you  do  not  teach  grammar  from  the  book, 
you  could  at  least  teach  it  by  practice  in  composi- 
tion. Do  you  not  exercise  them  in  writing  com- 
positions ?  " 

"  I  did  try  that  once,  and  let  me  tell  you  how  it 
turned  out.  They  got  up  a  story  that  I  was  teach- 
ing the  children  to  write  love  letters,  and  made 
such  a  clamor  about  it  that  I  had  to  stop." 

He  then  kindly  offered  to  show  us  what  he  did 
teach.  The  school  was  called  together  and  words  to 
spell  were  given  out  from  a  dictionary.  They  had 
got  as  far  as  "patrimony,"  and  went  on  from  that 
word  to  a  dozen  or  so  that  followed  it.  The  words 
were  spelled  by  the  children  in  turn,  but  nothing 


MISCELLANEA  399 

was  said  about  the  definition  or  meaning  of  the 
word.  He  did  not  explain  whether,  in  the  opinion 
of  the  parents,  it  was  feared  that  disastrous  events 
might  follow  if  the  children  knew  what  a  "  patri- 
mony "  was,  but  it  seems  that  no  objections  were 
raised  to  their  knowing  how  to  spell  it. 

We  thanked  him  and  took  our  leave,  feeling 
that  we  were  well  repaid  for  our  visit,  however  it 
might  have  been  with  the  teacher  and  his  school. 

I  have  never  been  able  to  confine  my  attention 
to  astronomy  with  that  exclusiveness  which  is  com- 
monly considered  necessary  to  the  highest  success 
in  any  profession.  The  lawyer  finds  almost  every 
branch  of  human  knowledge  to  be  not  only  of  in- 
terest, but  of  actual  professional  value,  but  one  can 
hardly  imagine  why  an  astronomer  should  concern 
himself  with  things  mundane,  and  especially  with 
sociological  subjects.  But  there  is  very  high  pre- 
cedent for  such  a  practice.  Quite  recently  the  fact 
has  been  brought  to  light  that  the  great  founder 
of  modern  astronomy  once  prepared  for  the  gov- 
ernment of  his  native  land  a  very  remarkable  paper 
on  the  habit  of  debasing  the  currency,  which  was 
so  prevalent  during  the  Middle  Ages.1  The  paper 
of  Copernicus  is,  I  believe,  one  of  the  strongest  ex- 
positions of  the  evil  of  a  debased  currency  that  had 
ever  appeared.  Its  tenor  may  be  judged  by  the 
opening  sentence,  of  which  the  f  oil  owing  is  a  free 
translation :  — 

1  Prowe  :  Nicolaus  Copernicus,  Bd.  ii.  (Berlin,  1884),  p.  33. 


400    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

Innumerable  though  the  evils  are  with  which  king- 
doms, principalities,  and  republics  are  troubled,  there 
are  four  which  in  my  opinion  outweigh  all  others,  —  war, 
death,  famine,  and  debasement  of  money.  The  three 
first  are  so  evident  that  no  one  denies  them,  but  it  is  not 
thus  with  the  fourth. 

A  certain  interest  in  political  economy  dates  with 
me  from  the  age  of  nineteen,  when  I  read  Say's 
work  on  the  subject,  which  was  at  that  time  in  very 
wide  circulation.  The  question  of  protection  and 
free  trade  was  then,  as  always,  an  attractive  one. 
I  inclined  towards  the  free  trade  view,  but  still  felt 
that  there  might  be  another  side  to  the  question 
which  I  found  myself  unable  fully  to  grasp.  I 
remember  thinking  it  quite  possible  that  Smith's 
"  Wealth  of  Nations  "  might  be  supplemented  by 
a  similar  work  on  the  strength  of  nations,  in  which 
not  merely  wealth,  but  everything  that  conduces  to 
national  power  should  be  considered,  and  that  the 
result  of  the  inquiry  might  lead  to  practical  con- 
clusions different  from  those  of  Smith.  Very  able 
writers,  among  them  Henry  C.  Carey,  had  espoused 
the  side  of  protection,  but  for  some  years  I  had  not 
time  to  read  then:  works,  and  therefore  reserved 
my  judgment  until  more  light  should  appear. 

Thus  the  matter  stood  until  an  accident  impelled 
me  to  look  into  the  subject.  About  1862  or  1863 
President  Thomas  Hill,  of  Harvard  University,  paid 
a  visit  to  Washington.  I  held  him  in  very  high 
esteem.  He  was  a  mathematician,  and  had  been 
the  favorite  student  of  Professor  Benjamin  Peirce  ; 


MISCELLANEA  401 

but  I  did  not  know  that  he  had  interested  himself 
in  political  economy  until,  on  the  occasion  in  ques- 
tion, I  passed  an  evening  with  him  at  the  house 
where  he  was  a  guest.  Here  he  told  me  that  in  a 
public  lecture  at  Philadelphia,  a  few  evenings  be- 
fore, he  had  informed  his  hearers  that  they  had 
amongst  them  one  of  the  greatest  philosophers  of 
the  time,  Henry  C.  Carey.  He  spoke  of  his  works 
in  such  enthusiastic  terms,  describing  especially  his 
law  of  the  tendency  of  mankind  to  be  attracted 
towards  the  great  capitals  or  other  centres  of  popu- 
lation, that  I  lost  no  time  in  carefully  reading 
Carey's  "  Principles  of  Social  Science." 

The  result  was  much  like  a  slap  in  the  face. 
With  every  possible  predisposition  to  look  favor- 
ably on  its  teachings,  I  was  unable  to  find  any- 
thing in  them  but  the  prejudiced  judgments  of  a 
one-sided  thinker,  fond  of  brilliant  general  proposi- 
tions which  really  had  nothing  serious  to  rest  upon 
either  in  fact  or  reason.  The  following  parody  on 
his  method  occurred  to  me  :  — 

The  physicians  say  that  quinine  tends  to  cure 
intermittent  fever.  If  this  be  the  case,  then  where 
people  use  most  quinine,  they  will  have  least  inter- 
mittent fever.  But  the  facts  are  exactly  the  oppo- 
site. Along  the  borders  of  the  lower  Mississippi, 
where  people  take  most  quinine,  they  suffer  most 
from  fever ;  therefore  the  effect  of  quinine  is  the 
^opposite  of  that  alleged. 

I  earnestly  wished  for  an  opportunity  to  discuss 
the  matter  further  with  Mr.  Hill,  but  it  was  never 
offered. 


402    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

During  the  early  years  of  the  civil  war,  when 
the  country  was  flooded  with  an  irredeemable  cur- 
rency, I  was  so  much  disturbed  by  what  seemed 
to  me  the  unwisdom  of  our  financial  policy,  that 
I  positively  envied  the  people  who  thought  it  all 
right,  and  therefore  were  free  from  mental  pertur- 
bation on  the  subject.  I  at  length  felt  that  I  could 
keep  silent  no  longer,  and  as  the  civil  war  was 
closing,  I  devoted  much  time  to  writing  a  little 
book,  "  Critical  Examination  of  Our  Financial  Pol- 
icy during  the  Southern  Rebellion."  I  got  this 
published  by  the  Appletons,  but  had  to  pay  for 
the  production.  It  never  yielded  enough  to  pay 
the  cost  of  printing,  as  is  very  apt  to  be  the  case 
with  such  a  book  when  it  is  on  the  unpopular  side 
and  by  an  unknown  author.  It  had,  however,  the 
pleasant  result  of  bringing  me  into  friendly  rela- 
tions with  two  of  the  most  eminent  financiers  of 
the  country,  Mr.  Hugh  McCulloch  and  Mr.  George 
S.  Coe,  the  latter  president  of  one  of  the  principal 
banks  of  New  York.  The  compliments  which  these 
men  paid  to  the  book  were  the  only  compensation 
I  got  for  the  time  and  money  expended  upon  it. 

In  1876  the  "  North  American  Review  "published 
a  centennial  number  devoted  to  articles  upon  our 
national  progress  during  the  first  century  of  our 
existence.  I  contributed  the  discussion  of  our 
work  in  exact  science.  Natural  science  had  been 
cultivated  among  us  with  great  success,  but  I  was 
obliged  to  point  out  our  backward  condition  in 


MISCELLANEA  403 

every  branch  of  exact  science,  which  was  more 
marked  the  more  mathematical  the  character  of  the 
scientific  work.  In  pure  mathematics  we  seemed 
hopelessly  behind  in  the  race. 

I  suppose  that  every  writer  who  discusses  a  sub- 
ject with  a  view  of  influencing  the  thought  of  the 
public,  must  be  more  or  less  discouraged  by  the 
small  amount  of  attention  the  best  he  can  say  is 
likely  to  receive  from  his  fellow-men.  No  matter 
what  his  own  opinion  of  the  importance  of  the 
matters  he  discusses,  and  the  results  that  might 
grow  out  of  them  if  men  would  only  give  them  due 
attention,  they  are  lost  in  the  cataract  of  utterances 
poured  forth  from  the  daily,  weekly,  and  monthly 
press.  I  was  therefore  much  pleased,  soon  after  the 
article  appeared,  to  be  honored  with  a  visit  from 
President  Oilman,  who  had  been  impressed  with 
my  views,  and  wished  to  discuss  the  practicability 
of  the  Johns  Hopkins  University,  which  was  now 
being  organized,  doing  something  to  promote  the 
higher  forms  of  investigation  among  us. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  mathematicians  of 
the  age,  Professor  J.  J.  Sylvester,  had  recently  sev- 
ered his  connection  with  the  Eoyal  Military  Acad- 
emy at  Woolich,  and  it  had  been  decided  to  invite 
him  to  the  chair  of  mathematics  at  the  new  univer- 
sity. It  was  considered  desirable  to  have  men  of 
similar  world-wide  eminence  in  charge  of  the  other 
departments  in  science.  But  this  was  found  to  be 
impracticable,  and  the  policy  adopted  was  to  find 
young  men  whose  reputation  was  yet  to  be  made, 


404    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

and  who  would  be  the  leading  men  of  the  future, 
instead  of  belonging  to  the  past. 

All  my  experience  would  lead  me  to  say  that  the 
selection  of  the  coming  man  in  science  is  almost  as 
difficult  as  the  selection  of  youth  who  are  to  become 
senators  of  the  United  States.  The  success  of  the 
university  in  finding  the  young  men  it  wanted,  has 
been  one  of  the  most  remarkable  features  in  the 
history  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  University.  Of  this 
the  lamented  Rowland  affords  the  most  striking, 
but  by  no  means  the  only  instance.  Few  could 
have  anticipated  that  the  modest  and  scarcely 
known  youth  selected  for  the  chair  of  physics  would 
not  only  become  the  leading  man  of  his  profession 
in  our  country,  but  one  of  the  chief  promoters  of 
scientific  research  among  us.  Mathematical  study 
and  research  of  the  highest  order  now  commenced, 
not  only  at  Baltimore,  but  at  Harvard,  Columbia, 
and  other  centres  of  learning,  until,  to-day,  we  are 
scarcely  behind  any  nation  in  our  contributions  to 
the  subject. 

The  development  of  economic  study  in  our  coun- 
try during  the  last  quarter  of  the  last  century  is 
hardly  less  remarkable  than  that  of  mathematical 
science.  A  great  impulse  in  this  direction  was 
given  by  Professor  K.  T.  Ely,  who,  when  the  Johns 
Hopkins  University  was  organized,  became  its  lead- 
ing teacher  in  economics.  He  had  recently  come 
from  Germany,  where  he  had  imbibed  what  was 
supposed  to  be  a  new  gospel  in  economics,  and  he 


MISCELLANEA  405 

now  appeared  as  the  evangelist  of  what  was  termed 
the  historical  school.  My  own  studies  were  of 
course  too  far  removed  from  this  school  to  be  a 
factor  in  it.  But,  so  far  as  I  was  able,  I  fought 
the  idea  of  there  being  two  schools,  or  of  any  ne- 
cessary antagonism  between  the  results  of  the  two 
methods.  It  was  true  that  there  was  a  marked  dif- 
ference in  form  between  them.  Some  men  preferred 
to  reach  conclusions  by  careful  analysis  of  human 
nature  and  study  of  the  acts  to  which  men  were  led 
in  seeking  to  carry  out  their  own  ends.  This  was 
called  the  old-school  method.  Others  preferred  to 
study  the  problem  on  a  large  scale,  especially  as 
shown  in  the  economic  development  of  the  country. 
But  there  could  be  no  necessary  difference  between 
the  conclusions  thus  reached. 

One  curious  fact,  which  has  always  been  over- 
looked in  the  history  of  economics  in  our  country, 
shows  how  purely  partisan  was  the  idea  of  a  sep- 
aration of  the  two  schools.  The  fact  is  that  the 
founder  of  the  historic  school  among  us,  the  man 
who  first  introduced  the  idea,  was  not  Ely,  but 
David  A.  Wells.  Up  to  the  outbreak  of  the  civil 
war,  Mr.  Wells  had  been  a  writer  on  scientific 
subjects  without  any  special  known  leaning  toward 
economics ;  but  after  it  broke  out  he  published  a 
most  noteworthy  pamphlet,  setting  forth  the  re- 
sources of  our  country  for  carrying  on  war  and 
paying  a  debt,  in  terms  so  strong  as  to  command 
more  attention  than  any  similar  utterance  at  the 
time.  This  led  to  his  appointment  as  Special 


406    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

Commissioner  of  Revenue,  with  the  duty  of  col- 
lecting information  devising  the  best  methods  of 
raising  revenue.  His  studies  in  this  line  were  very 
exhaustive,  and  were  carried  on  by  the  methods 
of  the  historic  school  of  economics.  I  was  almost 
annoyed  to  find  that,  if  any  economic  question  was 
presented  to  him,  he  rushed  off  to  the  experience 
of  some  particular  people  or  nation  —  it  might  be 
Sweden  or  Australia  —  instead  of  going  down  to 
fundamental  principles.  But  I  could  never  get 
him  interested  in  this  kind  of  analysis. 

One  of  Professor  Ely's  early  movements  resulted 
in  the  organization  of  the  American  Economic  As- 
sociation. His  original  plan  was  that  this  society 
should  have  something  like  a  creed  to  which  its 
members  were  expected  to  subscribe.  A  discussion 
of  the  whole  subject  appeared  in  the  pages  of 
"  Science,"  a  number  of  the  leading  economists  of 
the  country  being  contributors  to  it.  The  outcome 
of  the  whole  matter  has  been  a  triumph  for  what 
most  men  will  now  consider  reason  and  good  sense. 
The  Economic  Association  was  scarcely  more  than 
organized  when  it  broke  loose  from  all  creeds  and 
admitted  into  its  ranks  investigators  of  the  subject 
belonging  to  every  class.  I  think  the  last  discus- 
sion on  the  question  of  two  schools  occurred  at 
the  New  York  meeting,  about  1895,  after  which 
the  whole  matter  was  dropped  and  the  association 
worked  together  as  a  unit. 

As  Professor  Ely  is  still  a  leader  on  the  stage,  I 
desire  to  do  him  justice  in  one  point.  I  am  able 


MISCELLANEA  407 

to  do  so  because  of  what  I  have  always  regarded 
as  one  of  the  best  features  of  the  Johns  Hopkins 
University  —  the  unity  of  action  which  pervaded 
its  work.  There  is  a  tendency  in  such  institutions 
to  be  divided  up  into  departments,  not  only  inde- 
pendent of  each  other,  but  with  little  mutual  help 
or  sympathy.  Of  course  every  department  has 
the  best  wishes  of  every  other,  and  its  coopera- 
tion when  necessary,  but  the  tendency  is  to  have 
nothing  more  than  this.  In  1884,  after  the  resig- 
nation of  Professor  Sylvester,  I  was  invited  by 
President  Gilman  to  act  as  head  of  the  depart- 
ment of  mathematics.  I  could  not  figure  as  the 
successor  of  Sylvester,  and  therefore  suggested 
that  my  title  should  be  professor  of  mathematics 
and  astronomy.  The  examinations  of  students  for 
the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy  were  then,  as 
now,  all  conducted  by  a  single  "  Board  of  Uni- 
versity Studies,"  in  which  all  had  equal  powers, 
although  of  course  no  member  of  the  board  took 
an  active  part  in  cases  which  lay  entirely  outside  of 
his  field.  But  the  general  idea  was  that  of  mutual 
cooperation  and  criticism  all  through.  Each  pro- 
fessor was  a  factor  in  the  department  of  another  in 
a  helpful  and  not  an  antagonistic  way,  and  all  held 
counsel  on  subjects  where  the  knowledge  of  all  was 
helpful  to  each.  I  cannot  but  think  that  the  won- 
derful success  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  University  is 
largely  due  to  this  feature  of  its  activity,  which 
tended  to  broaden  both  professors  and  students 
alike. 


408    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

In  pursuance  of  this  system  I  for  several  years 
took  part  in  the  examinations  of  students  of  eco- 
nomics for  their  degrees.  I  found  that  Professor 
Ely's  men  were  always  well  grounded  in  those 
principles  of  economic  theory  which  seemed  to  me 
essential  to  a  comprehension  of  the  subject  on  its 
scientific  side. 

Being  sometimes  looked  upon  as  an  economist, 
I  deem  it  not  improper  to  disclaim  any  part  in 
the  economic  research  of  to-day.  What  I  have 
done  has  been  prompted  by  the  conviction  that  the 
greatest  social  want  of  the  age  is  the  introduction 
of  sound  thinking  on  economic  subjects  among  the 
masses,  not  only  of  our  own,  but  of  every  other 
country.  This  kind  of  thinking  I  have  tried  to 
promote  in  our  own  country  by  such  books  as 
"  A  Plain  Man's  Talk  on  the  Labor  Question/'  and 
"  Principles  of  Political  Economy." 

My  talks  with  Professor  Henry  used  to  cover  a 
wide  field  in  scientific  philosophy.  Adherence  to 
the  Presbyterian  church  did  not  prevent  his  being 
as  uncompromising  an  upholder  of  modern  scien- 
tific views  of  the  universe  as  I  ever  knew.  He 
was  especially  severe  on  the  delusions  of  spiritual- 
ism. To  a  friend  who  once  told  him  that  he  had 
seen  a  "  medium  "  waft  himself  through  a  window, 
he  replied,  "  Judge,  you  never  saw  that ;  and  if 
you  think  you  did,  you  are  in  a  dangerous  mental 
condition  and  need  the  utmost  care  of  your  family 
and  your  physician." 


MISCELLANEA  409 

Among  the  experiences  which  I  heard  him  re- 
late more  than  once,  I  think,  was  one  with  a  noted 
medium.  Henry  was  quite  intimate  with  President 
Lincoln,  who,  though  not  a  believer  in  spiritual- 
ism, was  from  time  to  time  deeply  impressed  by 
the  extraordinary  feats  of  spiritualistic  performers, 
and  naturally  looked  to  Professor  Henry  for  his 
views  and  advice  on  the  subject.  Quite  early  in 
his  administration  one  of  these  men  showed  his 
wonderful  powers  to  the  President,  who  asked  him 
to  show  Professor  Henry  his  feats. 

Although  the  latter  generally  avoided  ah1  contact 
with  such  men,  he  consented  to  receive  him  at  the 
Smithsonian  Institution.  Among  the  acts  proposed 
was  that  of  making  sounds  in  various  quarters  of 
the  room.  This  was  something  which  the  keen 
senses  and  ready  experimental  faculty  of  the  pro- 
fessor were  well  qualified  to  investigate.  He  turned 
his  head  in  various  positions  while  the  sounds  were 
being  emitted.  He  then  turned  toward  the  man 
with  the  utmost  firmness  and  said,  "  I  do  not  know 
how  you  make  the  sounds,  but  this  I  perceive  very 
clearly  :  they  do  not  come  from  the  room  but  from 
your  person."  It  was  in  vain  that  the  operator 
protested  that  they  did  not,  and  that  he  had  no 
knowledge  how  they  were  produced.  The  keen 
ear  of  his  examiner  could  not  be  deceived. 

Sometime  afterward  the  professor  was  traveling 
in  the  east,  and  took  a  seat  in  a  railway  car  beside 
a  young  man  who,  finding  who  his  companion  was, 
entered  into  conversation  with  him,  and  informed 


410    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

him  that  he  was  a  maker  of  telegraph  and  elec- 
trical instruments.  His  advances  were  received  in 
so  friendly  a  manner  that  he  went  further  yet,  and 
confided  to  Henry  that  his  ingenuity  had  been 
called  into  requisition  by  spiritual  mediums,  to 
whom  he  furnished  the  apparatus  necessary  for  the 
manifestations.  Henry  asked  him  by  what  medi- 
ums he  had  been  engaged,  and  was  surprised  to 
find  that  among  them  was  the  very  man  he  had 
met  at  the  Smithsonian.  The  sounds  which  the 
medium  had  emitted  were  then  described  to  the 
young  man,  who  in  reply  explained  the  structure 
of  the  apparatus  by  which  they  were  produced, 
which  apparatus  had  been  constructed  by  himself. 
It  was  fastened  around  the  muscular  part  of  the 
upper  arm,  and  was  so  arranged  that  clicks  would 
be  produced  by  a  simple  contraction  of  the  muscle, 
unaccompanied  by  any  motion  of  the  joints  of  the 
arm,  and  entirely  invisible  to  a  bystander. 

During  the  Philadelphia  meeting  of  the  Ameri- 
can Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science, 
held  in  1884,  a  few  members  were  invited  by  one 
of  the  foreign  visitors,  Professor  Fitzgerald  of  Dub- 
lin, I  think,  to  a  conference  on  the  subject  of  psy- 
chical research.  The  English  society  on  this  subject 
had  been  organized  a  few  years  before,  and  the 
question  now  was  whether  there  was  interest  enough 
among  us  to  lead  to  the  organization  of  an  Ameri- 
can Society  for  Psychical  Research.  This  was  de- 
cided in  the  affirmative;  the  society  was  soon  after 
formed,  with  headquarters  in  Boston,  and  I  was 


MISCELLANEA  411 

elected  its  first  president,  a  choice  which  Powell, 
of  Washington,  declared  to  be  ridiculous  in  the 
highest  degree. 

On  accepting  this  position,  my  first  duty  was  to 
make  a  careful  study  of  the  publications  of  the 
parent  society  in  England,  with  a  view  of  learning 
their  discoveries.  The  result  was  far  from  hopeful. 
I  found  that  the  phenomena  brought  out  lacked 
that  coherence  and  definiteness  which  is  character- 
istic of  scientific  truths.  Remarkable  effects  had 
been  witnessed ;  but  it  was  impossible  to  say,  Do 
so  and  so,  and  you  will  get  such  an  effect.  The 
best  that  could  be  said  was,  perhaps  you  will  get  an 
effect,  but  more  likely  you  will  not.  I  could  not 
feel  any  assurance  that  the  society,  with  all  its  dili- 
gence, had  done  more  than  add  to  the  mass  of 
mistakes,  misapprehensions  of  fact,  exaggerations, 
illusions,  tricks,  and  coincidences,  of  which  human 
experience  is  full.  In  the  course  of  a  year  or  two 
I  delivered  a  presidential  address,  in  which  I  pointed 
out  the  difficulties  of  the  case  and  the  inconclusive- 
ness  of  the  supposed  facts  gathered.  I  suggested 
further  experimentation,  and  called  upon  the  Eng- 
lish society  to  learn,  by  trials,  whether  the  mental 
influences  which  they  had  observed  to  pass  from 
mind  to  mind  under  specially  arranged  conditions, 
would  still  pass  when  a  curtain  or  a  door  sepa- 
rated the  parties.  Fifteen  years  have  since  elapsed, 
and  neither  they  nor  any  one  else  has  settled  this 
most  elementary  of  all  the  questions  involved.  The 
only  conclusion  seems  to  be  that  only  in  exceptional 


412    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

cases  does  any  effect  pass  at  all ;  and  when  it  does, 
it  is  just  as  likely  to  be  felt  halfway  round  the  world 
as  behind  a  curtain  in  the  same  room. 

Shortly  after  the  conference  in  Philadelphia  I 
had  a  long  wished-for  opportunity  to  witness  and 
investigate  what,  from  the  descriptions,  was  a  won- 
der as  great  as  anything  recorded  in  the  history  of 
psychic  research  or  spiritualism.  Early  in  1885  a 
tall  and  well-built  young  woman  named  Lulu  Hurst, 
also  known  as  the  "  Georgia  magnetic  girl,"  gave 
exhibitions  in  the  eastern  cities  which  equaled  or 
exceeded  the  greatest  feats  of  the  Spiritualists.  On 
her  arrival  in  Washington  invitations  were  sent  to 
a  number  of  our  prominent  scientific  men  to  witness 
a  private  exhibition  which  she  gave  in  advance  of 
her  public  appearance.  I  was  not  present,  but 
some  who  attended  were  so  struck  by  her  perform- 
ance that  they  arranged  to  have  another  exhibi- 
tion in  Dr.  Graham  Bell's  laboratory.  I  can  give 
the  best  idea  of  the  case  if  I  begin  with  an  account 
of  the  performance  as  given  by  the  eye-witnesses  at 
the  first  trial.  We  must  remember  that  this  was 
not  the  account  of  mere  wonder-seekers,  but  of 
trained  scientific  men.  Their  account  was  in  sub- 
stance this :  — 

A  light  rod  was  firmly  held  in  the  hands  of  the 
tallest  and  most  muscular  of  the  spectators.  Miss 
Lulu  had  only  to  touch  the  rod  with  her  fingers 
when  it  would  begin  to  go  through  the  most 
extraordinary  manoeuvres.  It  jerked  the  holder 
around  the  room  with  a  power  he  was  unable  to 


MISCELLANEA  413 

resist,  and  finally  threw  him  down  into  a  corner 
completely  discomfited.  Another  spectator  was 
then  asked  to  take  hold  of  the  rod,  and  Miss  Lulu 
extended  her  arms  and  touched  each  end  with  the 
tip  of  her  finger.  Immediately  the  rod  began  to 
whirl  around  on  its  central  axis  with  such  force 
that  the  skin  was  nearly  taken  off  the  holder's 
hands  in  his  efforts  to  stop  it. 

A  heavy  man  being  seated  in  a  chair,  man  and 
chair  were  lifted  up  by  the  fair  performer  placing 
her  hands  against  the  sides.  To  substantiate  the 
claim  that  she  herself  exerted  no  force,  chair  and 
man  were  lifted  without  her  touching  the  chair  at 
all.  The  sitter  was  asked  to  put  his  hands  under 
the  chair ;  the  performer  put  her  hands  around  and 
under  his  in  such  a  way  that  it  was  impossible  for 
her  to  exert  any  force  on  the  chair  except  through 
his  hands.  The  chair  at  once  lifted  him  up  with- 
out her  exerting  any  pressure  other  than  the  touch 
upon  his  hands. 

Several  men  were  then  invited  to  hold  the  chair 
still.  The  performer  then  began  to  deftly  touch 
it  with  her  finger,  when  the  chair  again  began  to 
jump  about  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  three  or  four 
men  to  hold  it  down. 

A  straw  hat  being  laid  upon  a  table  crown  down- 
wards, she  laid  her  extended  hands  over  it.  It  was 
lifted  up  by  what  seemed  an  attractive  force  simi- 
lar to  that  of  a  magnet  upon  an  armature,  and  was 
in  danger  of  being  torn  to  pieces  in  the  effort  of 
any  one  holding  it  to  keep  it  down,  though  she 


414    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

could  not  possibly  have  had  any  hold  upon  the 
object. 

Among  the  spectators  were  physicians,  one  or 
more  of  whom  grasped  Miss  Lulu's  arms  while 
the  motions  were  going  on,  without  finding  any 
symptoms  of  strong  muscular  action.  Her  pulse 
remained  normal  throughout.  The  objects  which 
she  touched  seemed  endowed  with  a  force  which 
was  wholly  new  to  science. 

So  much  for  the  story.  Now  for  the  reality. 
The  party  appeared  at  the  Volta  Laboratory,  ac- 
cording to  arrangement.  Those  having  the  mat- 
ter in  charge  were  not  professional  mystifiers  of 
the  public,  and  showed  no  desire  to  conceal  any- 
thing. There  was  no  darkening  of  rooms,  no  put- 
ting of  hands  under  tables,  no  fear  that  spirits 
would  refuse  to  act  because  of  the  presence  of 
some  skeptic,  no  trickery  of  any  sort. 

We  got  up  such  arrangements  as  we  could  for  a 
scientific  investigation  of  the  movements.  One  of 
these  was  a  rolling  platform  on  which  Miss  Lulu 
was  requested  to  stand  while  the  forces  were  ex- 
erted. Another  device  was  to  seat  her  on  a  plat- 
form scale  while  the  chair  was  lifting  itself. 

These  several  experiments  were  tried  in  the 
order  in  which  I  have  mentioned  them.  I  took 
the  wonderful  staff  in  my  hands,  and  Miss  Lulu 
placed  the  palms  of  her  hands  and  extended  them 
against  the  staff  near  the  ends,  while  I  firmly 
grasped  it  with  my  two  hands  in  the  middle.  Of 
course  this  gave  her  a  great  advantage  in  the 


MISCELLANEA  415 

leverage.  I  was  then  asked  to  resist  the  staff  with 
all  my  force,  with  the  added  assurance  from  Mrs. 
Hurst,  the  mother,  that  the  resistance  would  be  in 
vain. 

Although  the  performer  began  with  a  delicate 
touch  of  the  staff,  I  noticed  that  she  changed  the 
position  of  her  hands  every  moment,  sometimes 
seizing  the  staff  with  a  firm  grip,  and  that  it  never 
moved  in  any  direction  unless  her  hands  pressed  it 
in  that  direction.  As  nearly  as  I  could  estimate, 
the  force  which  she  exerted  might  have  been  equal 
to  forty  pounds,  and  this  exerted  first  in  one  way 
and  then  in  another  was  enough  to  upset  the  equi- 
librium of  any  ordinary  man,  especially  when  the 
jerks  were  so  sudden  and  unexpected  that  it  was 
impossible  for  one  to  brace  himself  against  them. 
After  a  scene  of  rather  undignified  contortion  I 
was  finally  compelled  to  retire  in  defeat,  but  with- 
out the  slightest  evidence  of  any  other  force  than 
that  exerted  by  a  strong,  muscular  young  woman. 
I  asked  that  the  rod  might  be  made  to  whirl  in 
my  hands  in  the  manner  which  has  been  described, 
but  there  was  clearly  some  mistake  in  this  whirl, 
for  Miss  Lulu  knew  nothing  on  the  subject. 

Then  we  proceeded  to  the  chair  performance, 
which  was  repeated  a  number  of  times.  I  noticed 
that  although,  at  the  beginning,  the  sitter  held  his 
fingers  between  the  chair  and  the  fingers  of  the 
performer,  the  chair  would  not  move  until  Miss 
Lulu  had  the  ball  of  her  hand  firmly  in  connection 
with  it.  Even  then  it  did  not  actually  lift  the 


416    THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  AN  ASTRONOMER 

sitter  from  the  ground,  but  was  merely  raised  up 
behind,  the  front  legs  resting  on  the  ground, 
whereupon  the  sitter  was  compelled  to  get  out. 
This  performance  was  repeated  a  number  of  times 
without  anything  but  what  was  commonplace. 

In  order  to  see  whether,  as  claimed,  no  force 
was  exerted  on  the  chair,  the  performer  was  in- 
vited to  stand  on  the  platform  of  the  scales  while 
making  the  chair  move.  The  weights  had  been 
so  adjusted  as  to  balance  a  weight  of  forty  pounds 
above  her  own.  The  result  was  that  after  some 
general  attempts  to  make  the  chair  move  the  lever 
clicked,  showing  that  a  lifting  force  exceeding 
forty  pounds  was  being  exerted  by  the  young 
woman  on  the  platform.  The  click  seemed  to  de- 
moralize the  operator,  who  became  unable  to  con- 
tinue her  efforts. 

The  experiment  of  raising  a  hat  turned  out 
equally  simple,  and  the  result  of  all  the  trials  was 
only  to  increase  my  skepticism  as  to  the  whole 
doctrine  of  unknown  forces  and  media  of  com- 
munication between  one  mind  and  another.  I  am 
now  likely  to  remain  a  skeptic  as  to  every  branch 
of  "  occult  science"  until  I  find  some  manifestation 
of  its  reality  more  conclusive  than  any  I  have  yet 
been  able  to  find. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Absence  of  mind,  examples  of,  73, 
169. 

Academy  of  Science,  a  would-be, 
351. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  Paris,  327. 

Adams,  Prof.  John  C.,  220;  intel- 
lectual capacity,  282 ;  politics, 
283. 

Agnesi,  Donna  Maria,  294. 

Agassiz,  Louis,  discusses  Origin  of 
Species,  70. 

Airy,  Sir  George  B.,  Observations 
of  Transit  of  Venus,  166  ;  hospi- 
tality, 285;  poetic  taste,  286; 
executive  ability,  286 ;  methods 
of  work,  289. 

Alexander,  Columbus,  368. 

Anderson,  Sir  James,  300. 

Angle,  trisection  of,  387. 

Argelander,  Prof.,  master  of  ob- 
servational astronomy,  318,  319. 

Atlantic  Cable,  the  first,  300. 

Auwers,  the  great  astronomer,  306. 

Bacon,  Mr.,  teacher  at  Bedeque,  9. 

Baillie,  William,  U.  S.  engineer, 
361. 

Baird,  Spencer  F.,  240. 

Bancroft,  George,  reviews  judicial 
decision  of  Star  Catalogue  crse, 
378. 

Barnard,  E.  E.,  190. 

Barnard,  Gen.  John  G.,  335. 

Bartlett,  William  P.  G.,  83. 

Belknap,  Admiral  G.  H.,  228. 

Bell,  Alexander  Graham,  tries  to  lo- 
cate ball  in  Garfield's  body,  358. 

Black,  Jeremiah,  168,  169. 

Blackie,  Prof.  J.S.,  294. 

Bond,  George  P.,  250. 

Booth,  Edwin,  157. 

Borst,  Charles  A.,  373. 

Boss,  Prof.  Lewis,  124,  230. 


Bowditch,  Nathaniel,  1. 
Bradford,  Isaac,  74. 
Brewster,  Elder,  3. 
Brown,  Prof.  S.  J.,  125. 
Burnham,  S.  W.,  188. 

Campbell,  William  W.,  190. 

Carey,  Henry  C.,  400. 

Casey,  Thomas  L.,  Jr.,  174. 

Casserly,  Eugene,  128. 

Cassini,  astronomer,  of  Paris  Obser- 
vatory, 331. 

Cayley,  Prof.  Arthur,  280. 

Chandler,  Captain  Ralph,  U.  S.  N., 
171. 

Chandler,  W.  E.,  126. 

Chauvenet,  William,  111. 

Chevreul,  M.,  his  remarkable  age, 
327. 

Circle,  quadrature  of,  387. 

Clark,  Alvan,  129,  144. 

Clark,  Alvan,  &  Sons,  character  of 
the  firm,  147. 

Cleveland,  Keith,  224. 

Cobbett,  William,  7,  53. 

Coe,  George  S.,  financier,  402. 

Coffin,  J.  H.  C.,  111. 

Combe,  George,  4,  16. 

Commune  of  Paris,  321-326. 

Comstock,  G.  C.,  126. 

Cooke,  Thomas,  &  Sons,  133. 

Cox,  Jacob  D.,  258. 

Crank,  the  anti-gravitation,  381 ;  a 
reasonable,  383. 

Cranks,  specimen  letters  from,  389. 

Darwin's  "  Origin  of  Species,"  dis- 
cussion of,  70. 

Dawes,  Henry  L.,  82. 

Dawes,  Rev.  W.  R.,  148. 

Davis,  Charles  H.,  63 ;  becomes  su- 
perintendent at  Naval  Observa- 
tory, 107. 


420 


INDEX 


Dayton,  A.  G.,  126. 

Delauney,  Charles,  indorses  Prof. 
Newcomb,  317  ;  director  of  Paris 
Observatory,  319 ;  attractive  per- 
sonality, 329,  330. 

Draper,  Dr.  Henry,  expert  in  astro- 
nomical photography,  171,  223. 

Draper,  Dr.  John  W.,  250. 

Dudley  Observatory  troubles,  80. 

Early,  Gen.  Jubal  A.,  raid  of,  339. 

Eastman,  John  R.,  107,  274. 

Eclipse,  solar,  of  1860,  journey  to 
observe,  88. 

Economics,  studies  in,  399 ;  alleged 
schools  of,  405. 

Education  in  mountain  regions  of 
South,  397. 

Eg-gleston,  Edward,  89. 

Eliot,  Charles  W.,  74. 

Elkin,  Dr.  W.L.,  176. 

Elliott,  Benjamin  S.,  50. 

Ely,  Prof.  K.  T.,  as  economist,  404 ; 
organizes  American  Economic  As- 
sociation, 406  ;  merits  as  teacher, 
408. 

Evarts,  William  M.,  241. 

Eveleth,  G.  W.,  55. 

Feil,  maker  of  optical  discs,  185. 

Ferguson,  James,  111. 

Ferrell,  William,  72,  88. 

Field,  Cyrus  W.,  128. 

Fiske,  John,  on  eccentric  literature, 
382. 

Fixed  stars,  Paris  conference  regard- 
ing, 230. 

Floyd,  Richard  S.,  186. 

France,  universities  of,  392. 

Franklin,  Admiral,  122. 

Furber,  Mr.,  starts  movement  for  ad- 
mission of  American  students  in 
French  universities,  396. 

Garfield,  James  A.,  first  acquaint- 
ance with,  353;  his  early  life, 
354 ;  injustice  done  him,  354 ;  his 
intellectual  gifts,  355 ;  assassina- 
tion of,  356. 

Geological  Survey,  circumstances 
leading  to  origin  of,  252-255  ;  at- 
tacks on,  261. 

Gibraltar,  determination  of  the  lon- 
gitude of,  284,  299. 

Gill,  Sir  David,  176. 

Gillis,  Capt.  J.  M.,  superintendent 


of  Naval  Observatory,  99 ;  obtains 
new  transit  circle,  105. 

Gilman,  Daniel  C.,  403. 

Gladstone,  William  Ewart,  meeting 
with,  273,  276. 

Glaisher,  J.  W.  L.,  72. 

Goldsborough,  Admiral,  340. 

Gould,  Benjamin  A.,  personality, 
78 ;  Dudley  Observatory  director- 
ship, 80 ;  candidate  for  Naval  Ob- 
servatory director,  111. 

Gould,  Dr.  E.  R.  L.,  393. 

Gravitation  detestable  to  some 
minds,  381. 

Green,  Capt.  F.  M.,  284. 

Greenwich  Observatory,  situation, 
285 ;  value  of  observations  at, 
288. 

Grubb,  Sir  Howard  J.,  156,  185. 

Hagar,  Judge,  189. 

Hale,  Eugene  P.,  123. 

Hale,  George  E.,  126. 

Hall,  Asaph,  107;  discovers  satel- 
lites of  Mars,  141. 

Hamlin,  Hannibal,  128. 

Harkness,  William,  appointed  to 
Naval  Observatory,  107 ;  shares 
honor  of  discovering  brightest 
line  in  spectrum  of  sun's  corona, 
113;  director  of  Observatory, 
180. 

Harrington,  attorney,  367. 

Harvard  Observatory,  Prof.  New- 
comb  called  to  directorship  of, 
211 ;  Pickering's  directorship, 
212. 

Hassler,  J.  J.  S.,  264. 

Hansen,  Prof.,  greatest  master  of 
celestial  mechanics,  315,  316. 

Hayden,  Prof.  F.  V.,  253. 

Hayes,  Rutherford  B.,  242,  259. 

Hedrick,  Prof.,  73. 

Hell,  Father  Maximilian,  his  alleged 
forgery,  154. 

Henry,  Prof.  Joseph,  Prof.  New- 
comb's  relations  with,  1,  54,  58, 
161 ;  characteristics,  234-237 ;  on 
spiritualism,  408. 

Herbert,  Hilary  A.,  231. 

Hewitt,  A.  S.,  255. 

Hilgard,  J.  E.,  1,  59 ;  in  charge  of 
Coast  Survey,  65,  128. 

Hill,  George  W.,  218,  219,  221. 

Hill,  Thomas  Prescott,  400. 

Holcombe,  Lieut.  J.  H.  L.,  174. 


INDEX 


421 


Holden,  Prof.  E.  S.,  184-194. 

Horsford,  E.  N.,  74. 

Hubbard,  Prof.  J.  S.,  head  astro- 
nomer of  Naval  Observatory,  98 ; 
in  charge  of  mural  circle,  102. 

Huggins,  Sir  William,  279. 

Hughes,  Thomas,  272. 

Humphreys,  Gen.,  chief  of  engi- 
neers, 256. 

Hurst,  Lulu,  the  "  Georgia  magnetic 
girl,"  exhibitions  of,  412-416. 

Illusion,  an  astronomical,  137. 
Inch,  Richard,  United  States  engi- 
neer, 361. 

Jennings,   Mr.,  cooling    device   of, 

358. 
Jewett,  C.  C.,  237. 

Keeler,  James  E.,  191. 
Kelvin,  Lord,  248. 
Kerr,  Prof.,  73. 
King,  Clarence,  258,  259. 
Knobel,  E.  B.,  380. 
Koresh,  his  theory,  385. 

Lamar,  Judge  Lucius,  264. 

Langley,  Prof.  Samuel  P.,  240. 

Language,  advantage  of  not  know- 
ing a,  306. 

Laplace,  the  "  Me*chanique  Celeste  " 
of,  1. 

Lardner's  "  Popular  Lectures  on 
Science  and  Art,"  19. 

Lawrence,  Prof.  Smith  J.,  56. 

Lee,  Gen.  Robert  E.,  339. 

Lee's  "Tables  and  Formulae,"  56. 

Leverrier,  M.,  two  views  of,  328  ; 
meeting  with,  330;  his  merits, 
331. 

Leverrier  and  Hansen's  systems  of 
planetary  computation,  219. 

Lick,  James,  182. 

Lick  Observatory,  origin  of,  182 ; 
location  discussed,  187  ;  telescope 
at,  185  ;  Holden's  administration, 
192 ;  Keeler's  administration,  194 ; 
Campbell's  administration,  194. 

Lincoln,  Pres.,  his  war-time  recep- 
tions, 342  ;  assassination  of,  344 ; 
trial  of  assassins,  345. 

Lister,  Lord,  278. 

Litchfield  Observatory,  founder  of. 
374. 

Loomis,  E.  J.,  74. 


Lowe,  Mr.  (Viscount  Sherbrooke), 
276. 

Mahan,  Prof.  D.  H.,  335. 

Mars,  discovery  of  the  satellites  of, 
141. 

Marsh,  Prof.  O.  C.,  exposure  of  In- 
dian ring,  263  ;  relation  to  "  Wild 
West,"  265 ;  exposure  of  Cardiff 
giant,  266 ;  his  modern  fossil,  269. 

Maskelyne,  Rev.  Nevil,  152. 

"  Mathematical  Monthly,"  founda- 
tion of,  84. 

Mathematics  and  exact  sciences, 
state  of,  in  America,  402. 

Maury,  Matthew  F.,  work  of,  103. 

McCook,  Gen.  A.  D.,  341. 

McCormick,  L.  J.,  132. 

McCuUoch,  Hugh,  244,  402. 

McMickan,  Captain,  of  Cunard  Line, 
271. 

McTavish,  Governor,  91. 

"Me'chanique  Celeste,"  first  sight 
of,  56. 

Meier,  John,  223. 

Meridian  conference  of  1884,  226. 

Mill,  John  Stuart,  272. 

Mills,  D.  O.,  183. 

Miner  and  Tully's  "Fevers  of  the 
Connecticut  Valley,"  33. 

Monroe,  Rev.  Alexander  H.,  36  n. 

Moore,  Capt.  W.  S.,  361. 

Moore's  Navigator,  17. 

Morrill,  Justin  S.,  124. 

National  Academy  of  Science,  early 
proceedings,  251 ;  report  of  Geo- 
logical Survey,  255 ;  report  of 
Forestry  System,  261. 

"  National  Intelligencer,"  letter  in, 
55. 

Natural  Philosophy,  Mrs.  Marcet's 
Conversations  on,  18. 

Nautical  Almanac,  assistants  on,  66 ; 
in  charge  of,  120. 

Naval  Observatory,  early  history  of, 
102  ;  work  at,  109  ;  conditions  at, 
110;  civilian  head  proposed,  111; 
views  of  administration  in  regard 
to,  112 ;  reports  of  eclipse  of 
1870,  113;  visit  of  Emperor  Dom 
Pedro,  117;  efforts  to  improve, 
122 ;  Board  of  Visitors  appointed, 
126  ;  telescope  of,  128 ;  Congres- 
sional action  regarding  new  tele- 
scope, 131 ;  observations  of  satel- 


422 


INDEX 


lites  of  Neptune,  136, 141 ;  search 
for  companion  of  Procyon,  138. 

Negro,  characteristics  of,  346 ;  edu- 
cation of,  348. 

Neptune,  observations  of  the  satel- 
lites of,  136,  141. 

Newall,  R.  S.,  133. 

Newcomb,  John,  father  of  Simon, 
characteristics  and  marriage,  4. 

Newcomb,  Simon,  the  first,  2. 

Newcomb,  Judge  Simon  B.,  2. 

Newcomb,  Prof.  Simon,  ancestry, 
2,  3;  parentage,  6;  early  educa- 
tion at  Bedeque,  9 ;  begins  study 
of  arithmetic,  10;  influence  of 
books,  14-22 ;  winter  spent  with 
farmer  Jefferson,  18 ;  residence 
at  Yarmouth,  23 ;  ancestral  home, 
23  ;  begins  study  of  medicine,  27 ; 
manufacture  of  botanic  medicine 
under  Dr.  Foshay,  31,  32 ;  joins 
temperance  lodge,  37;  intimacy 
with  Parkin  family,  39 ;  first  sight 
of  Smithsonian,  52 ;  reading  in 
political  economy,  53 ;  study  of 
Newton's  "Principia,"54;  first  at- 
tempt at  mathematical  paper,  54 ; 
letter  in  "  National  Intelligencer," 
55 ;  Colonel  Abert  sends  Lee's  "Ta- 
bles and  Formula,"  56;  letter 
from  Prof.  L.  J.  Smith,  56 ;  teach- 
ing in  a  planter's  family,  56 ;  first 
sight  of  "Me*chanique  Celeste," 
56 ;  assistant  on  staff  of  Nautical 
Almanac,  66 ;  discussion  of  Dar- 
win's "  Origin  of  Species,"  70 ;  stu- 
dent in  Lawrence  Scientific  School, 
74  ;  acquaintance  with  Dr.  B.  A. 
Gould,  78  ;  friendship  with  Wil- 
liam P.  G.  Bartlett,  83  ;  journey 
in  1860  to  observe  solar  eclipse, 
88  ;  meets  Governor  Ramsey  and 
Edward  Eggleston,  89 ;  received 
by  Governor  McTavish,  91 ;  Sas- 
katchewan journey,  92 ;  candi- 
date for  professorship  in  Wash- 
ington University,  95 ;  application 
for  professorship  in  Naval  Ob- 
servatory, 97 ;  early  experience 
at  Observatory,  101 ;  edits  Yar- 
nall's  observations,  105 ;  in  charge 
of  mural  circle,  107;  journey  to 
observe  1869  eclipse,  113;  new 
transit  circle,  114;  investigation 
of  moon's  motion,  115 ;  visit  of 
Dom  Pedro  to  Observatory,  117 ; 


assumes  charge  of  Nautical  Al- 
manac Office,  120 ;  verification  of 
satellites  of  Mars,  141 ;  transit  of 
Venus  expedition  to  Europe,  167 ; 
expedition  to  Cape  of  Good  Hope, 
174;  agent  of  Lick  Observatory 
trustees,  184;  first  meeting  with 
Schaeberle,  190;  study  of  orbits 
of  asteroids,  195 ;  problems  of 
astronomy,  198 ;  motion  of  moon, 
202;  occupations  of  stars,  207; 
offered  Harvard  Observatory  di- 
rectorship, 211 ;  head  of  Nautical 
Almanac  Office,  214;  policy  of 
office,  216,  233 ;  computations  for 
Planet  Tables,  216;  assistants, 
218 ;  suggestions  to  Meridian  Con- 
ference, 226;  computations  re- 
firding  fixed  stars,  230 ;  member 
ale  Alumni  Association,  241 ; 
member  Washington  Scientific 
Club,  244 ;  first  trip  to  Europe, 
271 ;  meets  Thomas  Hughes,  272 ; 
John  Stuart  Mill,  272;  William 
Ewart  Gladstone,  273;  General 
Burnside,  273;  attends  banquet 
of  Royal  Society,  276 ;  visit  to 
Lord  Lister,  278;  meets  Prof. 
Cayley,  280;  Prof.  J.  C.  Adams 
calls,  281 ;  determination  of  Gib- 
raltar longitude,  284;  visits 
Greenwich,  285 ;  friendship  with 
Sir  George  Airy,  285-289 ;  visits 
Edinburgh,  292;  meets  Prof. 
Blackie,  294 ;  joins  party  of  Eng- 
lish astronomers  bound  for  Al- 
geria, 295 ;  stormy  voyage,  296 ; 
at  Gibraltar,  297 ;  Sir  James  An- 
derson, an  old  acquaintance,  300 ; 
Mediterranean  trip,  302-305;  Wil- 
helm  Forster,  a  Berlin  acquaint- 
ance, 306 ;  meets  great  astronomer 
Auwers,  306 ;  visits  Pulkova  Ob- 
servatory, 309;  winter  ride  in 
Russia,  310 ;  first  meeting  with 
Hansen,  315 ;  arrives  in  Paris 
during  German  evacuation,  319 ; 
visits  Paris  Observatory,  321 ; 
meets  Leverrier,  330;  Washington 
during  Civil  War  and  after,  334- 
371 ;  two  days  military  service, 
339 ;  assassination  of  Lincoln,  344 ; 
attends  trial  of  conspirators,  345 ; 
acquaintance  with  Sumner,  349 ; 
with  President  Garfield,  353; 
asked  to  devise  means  for  cooling 


INDEX 


423 


his  sick  chamber,  357 ;  sugges- 
tions for  location  of  bullet,  358 ; 
experience  with  eccentric  theo- 
rists, 381-389 ;  assists  in  obtaining 
entrance  of  American  students  to 
French  universities,  396;  object 
lesson  in  regard  to  education  in 
mountain  regions  of  South,  397 ; 
studies  in  economics,  399 ;  pub- 
lishes "  Critical  Examination  of 
our  Financial  Policy  during  the 
Southern  Kebellion,"  402  ;  contri- 
bution to  "  North  American  Re- 
view,' '  402  ;  conference  with  Prof. 
Daniel  C.  Gilman,  403 ;  contribu- 
tions to  economic  literature  :  "  A 
Plain  Man's  Talk  on  the  Labor 
Question,"  "  Principles  of  Politi- 
cal Economy,"  408;  "Psychical 
Research,"  410-412. 
Nixon,  Thomas,  37,  41. 

Occultism,  93. 

Old  Peake,  janitor  of  the  Smithso- 
nian, 58. 

Oldright  Mr.,  53. 
Oliver,  James  E.,  72. 
Ommaney,  Sir  Erastus,  295. 

Paine,  Thomas,  3. 

Paradoxers,  experience  with,  382. 

Paris  Conference,  conclusions  of, 
230 ;  attacked  by  Prof.  Boss  and 
S.  C.  Chandler,  230. 

Paris  Observatory,  321,  332. 

Parkin,  George  R.,  39. 

Patent  claim,  a  curious,  361. 

Patterson,  J.  W.,  352. 

Peirce, Benjamin,  professor  of  math- 
ematics, 75  ;  personality,  77,  78 ; 
chairman  of  committee  on  meth- 
ods of  observing  transit  of  Ve- 
nus, 161 ;  director  of  solar  eclipse 
expedition,  274 ;  presence  in  Eng- 
land valuable  to  British  astrono- 
mers, 277. 

Peters,  C.  H.  F.,  heads  Transit  of 
Venus  expedition,  139 ;  Star  Cata- 
logue Case,  372 ;  work  on  Ptole- 
my's Catalogue,  380. 

Photoheliograph,  horizontal,  164. 

Phrenology,  study  of,  14,  34. 

Pickering,  E.  C.,  126. 

Pistor  and  Martin's  transit  circle, 
105. 

Poe,  Gen.  O.  M.,  352. 


Powell,  John  W.,  240 ;  during  Gar- 
field's  illness,  357. 

"  Principia,"  Newton's,  54. 

Procyon,  search  for  companion  of, 
138  ;  at  Lick  Observatory,  140. 

Professors  in  Navy,  origin  of  corps 
of,  101. 

"  Psychical  Research,"  410. 

Ptolemy's  Star  Catalogue,  Peters's 
work  on,  380. 

Pulkova  Observatory,  object  glass 
made  by  Alvan  Clark  &  Sons, 
144,  145;  foundation  and  situa- 
tion, 309-313. 

Reed,  Thomas  B.,  125. 
Rhodes  scholarships,  37. 
Rodgers,  Admiral  John,  120. 
Rogers,  William  B.,  250. 
Royal  Society,  banquet  of,  275. 
Runkle,  John  D.,  1,  66. 

r,  367. 


Safe  bui 

Safford,  Truman  H.,  67. 

Sampson,  Admiral  W.  T.,  121. 

Sands,  Admiral,  superintendent  of 
Naval  Observatory,  112;  retire- 
ment, 116;  assists  in  obtaining 
new  telescope,  130. 

Sauty,  de,  cable  operator  at  Gibral- 
tar, 300. 

Schaeberle,  assistant  to  Prof.  Hoi- 
den,  190. 

Schofield,  J.  M.,  96. 

Schurman,  Caleb,  11. 

Schurman,  Jacob  Gould,  11  n. 

Scientific  Club,  244. 

Scudder,  Samuel  H.,  88. 

Shepherd,  Alexander  H.,  career, 
364-371. 

Sherman,  Gen.  W.  T.,  243. 

Sibley,  J.  Langdon,  76. 

Smith,  James,  circle  squarer,  387. 

Smithson,  James,  235. 

Smithsonian  Institution,  policy  of, 
235,  236 ;  difficulties  in  adminis- 
tration, 237 ;  expansion  of  scope, 
240. 

Smyth,  Prof.  C.  Piazzi,  293. 

Smyth,  Admiral  W.  H.,  152. 

Sophocles,  Evangelinus  Apostolides, 
75. 

Standard  time,  adoption  of,  225, 
226. 

Stanton,  Edwin  M.,  336 ;  his  tireless 
energy,  337 ;  his  law  of  war,  338. 


424 


INDEX 


Star  Catalogue  case,  the  great, 
372. 

Steeves,  Isaac,  38. 

Struve,  Otto,  144,  309. 

Struve,  Wilhelm,  312. 

Struve,  Russian  minister  at  Wash- 
ington, 312. 

Sudler,  Dr.  Arthur  E.,  50. 

Sumner,  Charles,  characteristics, 
349,  350;  kills  an  incipient 
"  Academy,"  352. 

Sylvester,  Prof.  J.  J.,  403. 

Telescope,  horizontal,  planned  by 
Prof.  Winlock,  163. 

Thomson,  Sir  William,  248. 

Tilley,  Sir  Leonard,  40. 

Tracy,  Benjamin,  123. 

Transit  of  Venus,  early  observa- 
tions of,  151 ;  observed  by  Mason 
and  Dixon,  153;  Hell's  alleged 
forgeries,  157;  preparation  for 
observation  of,  160;  Committee 
of  National  Academy  of  Sciences 
to  consider  subject,  161 ;  transit 
commission,  163;  appropriation 
for  observation  station,  170,  171, 
174 ;  value  of  observations,  173 ; 
observations  at  Cape  Town,  177  ; 
publication  of  observations,  178. 

Tremblay,  Dom  de  la,  395. 

Tuttle,H.P.,192. 

Tyndall,  Prof.,  296. 


Van  Vleck,  Prof.,  73. 

Wagner,  Dr.,  315. 

Wallace,  Gen.  Lew,  339. 

Washburn,  Mr.,  minister  to  Paris, 
320. 

Washington,  during  the  Civil  War, 
334;  newsboys  of,  336;  Early's 
raid  on,  339;  after  the  fall  of 
Richmond,  343;  Shepherd  re"- 
gime,  363 ;  the  new  city,  366. 

Weiss,  director  of  Vienna  Observa- 
tory, 157. 

Welles,  Gideon,  111. 

Wells,  David  A.,  405. 

White  House,  incidents  at,  during 
Garfield's  illness,  357. 

Whitney,  William  C.,  123. 

Williams,  Sir  Fenwick,  298. 

Wilson,  Henry,  250. 

Winlock,  Prof.  Joseph,  superin- 
tendent Nautical  Almanac,  59, 
61 ;  personality,  65  ;  constructs 
instrument  for  astronomical  pho- 
tography, 163. 

Wolf,  Prof.  Charles,  144. 

Woodward,  Dr.  J.  J.,  357. 

Wright,  Chauncey,  70. 

Wright,  Gen.  H.  G.,  341. 

Yale  Alumni  Association,  241. 
Yarnall,   Prof.   M.,  characteristics, 
101 ;  observations  of,  105. 


9? 


a.a.6 
aa) 

- 
$-«*» 


tw 


prc « 

Eltctrotyped  and printed  by  H.  O.  Houghton  &*  Co. 
Cambridge,  Mass.,  U.S.  A. 


tjf 


RETURN     CIRCULATION  DEPARTMENT 

TO—  ^      202  Main  Library 

3214 

LOAN  PERIOD  1 
HOME  USE 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS 

Renewals  and  Recharges  may  be  made  4  days  prior  to  the  due  date. 

Books  may  be  Renewed  by  calling     642-3405. 


DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 

inn   1    P   iQftQ 

JUN  1  J  IJW 

i 

4  !c69 

nrr  la  1997 

Dtb  *v 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  BERKELEY 
FORM  NO.  DD6  BERKELEY,  CA  94720 


LD  21A-60m-10,'65 
(F7763slO)476B 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


U.C.  BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


' 


••**". 


